Overseas
by LolyChristine
Summary: What if Chris had attended to Hogwarts? Now, his friends from abroad showed up to help putting his secrets in danger. Eventually, Chris revelation fic. Rated T to be safe. Beta-reader: Piper Chris Melinda Halliwell
1. The end

**A/N: **This is my first fic ever. I've read tons of them but never wrote anything until this idea got stuck in my read. English isn't my first-language, so before I start I should thank my beta-reader, **Piper Chris Melinda Halliwell** (listed under my favorites) for the help.

This is crossing-over between Charmed x Harry Potter so adjustment to collide the worlds has been made. So far, in my mind the epilogue of Harry Potter would have to be "Sixteen years later" instead of "Nineteen" to adjust dates. The rest will be explained through the story.

Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or Harry Potter.

* * *

_Manor, 2004_

**Chapter 1**

Phoebe was alone at the attic, staring at the Book of Shadows. They hadn't had any kind of magical chores in days and, strangely enough, she was yearning for some kind of action. She walked around lightly touching every object in sight willing to get some sort of Premonition.

A swirl of blue orbs appeared in the middle of the room and, even before Paige fully reform, Phoebe's empathy powers kicked in – despite the blocking potion.

"Ouch! Frustration, huh?" said Phoebe. "Get a grip on yourself, missy."

"And you complaining about it isn't helpful. Who would say so?" replied Paige in her sarcastic way. Phoebe sighed letting herself on the couch.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I just can't deal with this power yet."

Paige just waved, meaning it was okay and sat beside her.

"Where is it all coming from, Paige? Did our neurotic white-lighter show up to destroy our peace already?" Some part of Pheobe wished the answer would be yes.

"Nope. Not a sign of him in two days. Somehow, I think that what's actually bothering me. I know Piper snapped at him and she can be pretty harsh sometimes... But Chris seemed so devoted to the cause, so restless. I guess I was expecting him to get over it by now."

"I know. I find it quite odd he didn't find a way to come back pressuring us into going down to the underworld and all."

"What could have been so serious? Piper refuses to talk about it. She acts as if he had never existed."

"Something happened. Something big. After all before that, even she didn't trust Chris, she was worried about Wyatt and now... she seems so confident about it."

The younger sisters hadn't noticed the eldest one standing by the door for a few moments.

Piper entered the room and decided it wasn't fair to keep her family concerned about Wyatt's safe any longer. She actually didn't know exactly why she hadn't told them yet. Maybe because she didn't quite want to believe what she had seen or what Chris told her. She was still expecting the little liar to come at them with some sort of bizarre explanation... she couldn't figure out why, but she was still willing to believe him and to take the boy's apologies.

Yes, the boy. He was so young and he looked so desperate right before orbing away. But he didn't come back, he didn't try to explain himself – and that meant she was right to begin with and there wasn't another explanation.

With that in mind, Piper said, "You don't have to worry about Wyatt any longer."

Her sisters turned at her as she continued in a calm voice...

"I blew his cover two nights ago. Chris is gone. The _threat_ is gone." And looking at her toddler on her hip, she added in her motherly voice _"_Everything is ok, now? Right, sweetie?"

"HOLD ON?" Paige screamed. "_Gone_? What do you mean by gone? Are you trying to say you vanquished our white-lighter?"

"White-lighters can't be vanquished, Paige." And Phoebe started jumping to conclusions before Piper could say a word. "Uh, okay so Chris wasn't a white-lighter after all?"

"But he orbed. How on Earth could he orb?" The youngest started to cooperate with Phoebe's reverie.

"Gosh, he must be extremely powerful to fake orbing."

"We should have seen it... his inability to heal."

"The fact that he was always in the underworld..."

"His telekinesis..."

"He must an upper level demon." Phoebe finally directed on sentence to Piper again. "How did you—?"

"Why didn't you call us for help?" Paige added.

Piper was annoyed, yet amused about how creative and wrong their line of thinking was. Annoyance won, and she snapped.

"Oh, shut up you two! Can't we have one normal conversation around this house? I didn't vanquish Chris. Nobody died. No killing was involved."

"But, how...? What?" Phoebe said confused.

"Sheesh. Let me finish, would you?"

Piper took a deep breath and slowly moved to the couch and sat down, placing her baby on her lap.

"I left Chris baby-sitting Wyatt while I went P3," she started smoothly avoiding alarming Wyatt who looked seriously at his mom as if he could understand the conversation, "And when I came back, I found him and a fellow demon leaning over Wyatt. Thanks God, I got there before they could do any harm..."

Piper kissed her son's forehead before going on. "The demon shimmered away before I could do anything."

"And Chris?" Paige asked.

"That little liar had the nerve to tell me that the demon wasn't dangerous and all sort of crap about Wyatt being evil... Wyatt, evil?" her snap was louder then she expected. She turned to the toddler sitting silently in her lap with his wide eyes full of innocence. "How could he say this? Did he actually think that I would believe this?"

Her sisters sat next to her and Paige started rubbing her back. Piper was on the verge of tears.

"It's difficult to create a convincible lie when you are caught in the act, isn't it?"

"What did you do Piper? How did you get rid of him?"

"I simply told him I didn't wanna see him anymore. He orbed away. I thought he would come back with a more convincing lie. But just I think he knows he screwed up big this time. He's not coming back."

Piper didn't know how she was so sure of that, something in the white-lighters' face... pain, failure... defeat. He wouldn't come back, she knew.

* * *

_At some part of the park._

A devastated figure was sitting on the ground under a huge tree. The shaking of the sobs he couldn't hold any longer were mixed with the constant quivering. It was so cold. He had never felt so cold. He was sure that this coldness was coming from his heart. He has never felt so empty, so desperate...

"_I'm sorry, mom. I'm sorry. I failed Wyatt, I failed you all... I thought I could, but I couldn't. I wasn't strong enough, not good enough. I failed. I'm sorry, mom" _

Another wave of sobs came to wash the young white-lighter's face with tears. Tears he didn't even know he had yet. He didn't know for how long he was sitting there... he didn't know where to go. He couldn't get back to his old home. He couldn't face what was left of his family in the future. He couldn't face his friends. They would be better off without him and his problems... they would be finally able to do what had to be done.

"I'm sorry, Wy," he finally murmured closing his eyes and letting the endless tears run through his face.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

In the attic, Piper stood up and said in a voice far happier than she felt.

"Well, it's over now. We can go back to our normal lives – at least until the next de—?"

"... now," murmured Paige incredulous.


	2. New beginnings

**A/N: **I know chapter one was on a few hours ago. But my beta just sent me the second one. Would you mind?

**Recap from previous chapter:**

_In the attic, Piper stood up and said in a voice far happier than she felt._

_"Well, it's over now. We can go back to our normal lives – at least until the next de—?"_

_"... now," murmured Paige incredulous._

**Chapter 2**

The wall behind the Book of Shadows suddenly started to glow and Wyatt's shield went up. A portal started opening. Piper, tranquilized within the safety her baby created to himself, smoothly placed the toddler in the playpen with her eyes fixed on the shinning spot.

The Charmed Ones got ready for an attack. Slowly, the light started to fade and the shapes of two people began to form until there was a young red-haired couple standing in the attic.

Piper had had enough of people popping up around the house and, without a second thought, raised her hands and to blow them up.

"Protego." A male voice shouted.

"Lamp." Paige orbed the object in their direction.

"Stupefy!"

Paige was knocked unconscious and her sisters ran to her. The strangers didn't move.

"LEO!" Piper shouted, checking Wyatt with the corner of her eyes; his shield was still up.

"Why do you have to be so extreme, Lil?" The young man calmly asked to his partner.

"They attacked first. It was self defense!" said the woman in an outraged tone.

"There are defensive spells! I thought you'd know by now".

The red-haired woman ignored her friend's comment and turned her look to the sisters.

"LEO! GET DOWN HERE _NOW!_" Piper demanded to the ceiling and turned to the strangers. "Who are you?"

"Oh, hi, Piper," greeted the girl. "Sorry about the dramatic entrance, I will fix…"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AND HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?" But Piper didn't wait for the answer. She needed some time to adjust and to help Paige. With that in mind, she tried to freeze the strangers several times, but it didn't seem to work since the tall man ably deflected her power.

The strangers didn't appear to be frightened or angry at Piper's attack instead, they looked to be lightly waiting for the eldest sister to calm down. The man whispered to his partner. "Stupefying them didn't smooth our way in, you know?" She just snorted in response.

Phoebe realized the young man was holding a small weapon and it appeared to be sustaining a kind of shield around them.

Paige woke up, moaning in pain, and Piper started pacing in circles nervously screaming from the top of her lungs. "FOR GOD'S SAKE, LEO! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Nothing. No response whatsoever.

"Apparently, the guy sticks to his habits, huh?" The stranger murmured to her partner.

Phoebe started helping Paige to the couch without taking her eyes from the young man. She was really intrigued by his weapon, but she wasn't able to see it clearly from there. Paige, apparently, had a broken arm and was in a great deal of pain. As the young guy made a small move towards them and Phoebe screamed.

"Hold on, mister. Stay right where you are."

"I can help…"

"Don't move!" Phoebe demanded helping her sister carefully to the couch.

"I can really help. Look, I don't wanna hurt you."

Piper decided to take part at the conversation. "One more move and I swear to God I'll find a way to blow your sorry ass all the way back to wherever you came from!"

"No, please" he pleaded truthfully.

The guy couldn't be more than 25. He was a tall, handsome and sort of athletic young fellow. He didn't seem evil at all, Phoebe thought. Actually, his brown eyes showed nothing, but concern. But, after what all them went through, appearance wasn't too much to rely on.

The red-haired girl seemed bored. "You can't blow us or vanquish us… so drop the act, will you?"

"Lil, sheesh. Beautify the place and let me do the talking, ok?" The man reprimanded his friend once again. "Look, Phoebe, you're an Empath, right?" The man got back the diplomacy.

The middle sister nodded suspiciously.

"What if I drop my shields and let you sense me… Then, if you say it is ok, I move to Paige, ok? I really can help."

"Are you a white-lighter?" asked Phoebe narrowing her eyes.

"No, but I'm… I can help".

Paige moaned again, she was in deep pain. Piper stood still in front of the playpen – completely ready to destroy anything that tried to get to Wyatt who, yet shielded, looked curious at the new people around.

"How do I know you are not gonna trick me?" Phoebe asked the male stranger.

"You don't," the girl answered cockily.

"Less discussing and more blindly trusting in the man who claims he can help," cried Paige.

"Ok, we promised not to attack for now" Phoebe gave her older sister a quick glimpse.

The man dropped the protective field and his emotional barriers. Phoebe could sense concern, sorry and eagerness to help. She slightly nodded and he came forward.

And then Phoebe took the first clear sight of his weapon. _A wand? What the hell is he doing with a wand? How weirdly cliché was that? _she thought.

The man gently examined Paige's arm and waved his _wand_ murmuring a few words. Paige seemed to be relieved immediately.

"Did you heal her?" Phoebe was curious.

"No, as I said, I'm no whitelighter. I just mended the broken bone and diminished her pain," and turning to his _patient. "_As long the lady doesn't put much pressure on this arm, it should be okay in a few days… Behave yourself, okay?"

Instead of answering, Paige simply agreed like a shy child. She had the strange feeling she was talking to her pediatric physician. The guy emanated caring and confidence.

"So, now that Paige is okay… I reckon you are not taking a random tour through our attic?" Piper asked in a sharp tone.

"Nope," the red-haired said directly to her.

The eldest sister had the first chance to look at stranger. She was just a small, thin girl, approximately Chris age – which meant – really young. An uninvited concern about her white-lighter crossed her mind when she realized how much of a child he still was.

Several thoughts started running through her read. _"Chris was that young, but he tried to hurt her baby. What if this two had come to complete his mission?" Ah!_ She shook her head annoyed. _"When did her little one become a junior high favorite target?"_

"How old are you people?" Piper finally asked.

"Twenty-one," the strangers replied at the same time.

Paige cut. "To a more productive line of questioning: Who are you people and what do you want with us?"

The red haired girl placed her wand in the back pocket and offered her hand towards the sisters. "I see we started at the wrong foot here. I think we should start over."

Her partner nodded in proud agreement and she threw him an annoyed look. She turned with a beautiful smile to the Halliwells. Piper accepted the hand suspiciously and added. "Since apparently, you know who we are… you?"

"I'm Lily. This is Hugo. We come from the future." The atmosphere got immediately colder as she mentioned future. _What the heck was going on here?_ Lily waved the thought and continued: "We're Chris's friends."

"If you're friends of that little brat, then we have nothing…"

"Piper, wait!" cut Phoebe "I don't sense anything bad coming from these two and they aren't blocking me out like Chris used to. We could find out something useful. Don't you think?"

"All right," snorted Piper. "Have it your way".

"Not Saint Chris back here, huh? Did they even get the right Chris?" Lily whispered to her friend.

Hugo who was not in a joking mood, said to the sisters "Where should we start?"

"The beginning," stated Paige "Why are you having this nice walk through time?"

"To help Chris help you of course." Lily answered. "He is running out of time more quickly than we imagined at first and since Wyatt is borderline insane by now we thought he could…"

Piper froze.

"Lil, stop spilling it all out. We don't know how much they know," Hugo reprimand whispering.

Finally acknowledging the astonished Halliwell's faces, Lily spoke out loud: "Judging by their shocked looks and knowing Chris, they don't know anything. He would have been neurotic about future…"

"… Consequences." Paige completed still in shock.

"Yes, they got the right Chris, see?" Lily concluded mainly to her partner.

Hugo ignored and started explaining. "Well, when Chris first came here we hadn't figured out every little detai–" but was suddenly interrupted by Piper.

'Did you call _my_ son crazy? How dare..."– Piper' eyes glued at Lily.

"Uow. I didn't say crazy… I said borderline insane and I was being nice." Lily defended herself.

Piper knew where this was going. Chris probably had warned his friends about the fact the he was busted and managed to send a new team to help him finish whatever he started. Piper struggled to trust Chris once to protect Wyatt… she wouldn't be tricked again.

"… How dare you to come out here to sustain his lies? Are you telling Wyatt is evil too? And you expect us simply believe and help your agenda? You can go back to wherever you came from because I won't listen. I don't and won't trust you."

"Ow," Hugo knew nothing good could come from a Lily x Piper brunt, but before he could say a word, his friend's ears become as red as her hair…

"Look, Piper. Chris may have been too gentle, so I'll put in a way you understand: I DON'T NEED YOU TO TRUST ME. I have a very strong opinion about how we should deal with the Source of Evil. For all I care, we could go back to the future right now and vanquish you son's sorry ass. Actually, we only didn't do it yet because Chris begged us not to, he asked for a shot to save Wyatt and we'd give Chris anything. Are we clear?"

Piper sat down in shock, murmuring incoherently. "It's… I… You're lying…You couldn't… "

"Ha. Couldn't I?" Lily sounded outraged. "I'm sorry that you and Wyatt – for all that matters – are still so trapped in this Charmed Ones as the sole power thing, so let me break some news for you, Piper: magic goes much further… and I know more than half a dozen witches who could rip your precious son apart before he even knew what hit him. So, even if, by luck, Wyatt survived me… he would be able to win all rounds. Cut the crap, ok? We are here to try to save your son FOR THE LAST TIME before sending him straight to hell."

Piper was even more in shock. Her sisters sat near her in a protective way – because, clearly, she could fall apart at any minute. She was still shocked with the whole concept that appeared somehow to be a disgusting true. In a last a last attempt to blow the theory, Piper said in a shed of voice.

"This can't be… the prophecy… he's the most powerful being…"

Lily rolled her eyes. _How did Chris get to be insecure coming from that background?_ The thought of him somehow managed her to control the urge to slap the woman in front of her… Chris wouldn't like it. With that in mind, she answered in a more controlled, but harsh tone.

"He's extremely powerful, sure, but not the only one. Prophets and seers are not exactly objective in their writing and this can be a great source of trouble… Trust me on that."

The Charmed Ones didn't say a word. They were still processing all the new information.

Hugo decided to do something to smooth the atmosphere and started talking, mainly to the younger sisters since Piper seemed to be in a sort of trance.

"We're here to help. And we can tell you things about the future, things Chris couldn't. We could even show if you want."

It was working since Phoebe and Paige got suddenly interested.

Hugo continued. "When Chris came, we didn't really know what was going on and how much could he say..."

Lily was calmer. "This is our first time time-traveling and we didn't quite understand it. But now, we got a spell to back us up and…"

"What kind of spell?" asked Phoebe curiously.

Hugo explained, "If we tell you things about the future, and you could make different decisions. So we will cast a spell which will, whenever it's crucial that you decide towards something, drive you to it."

The sisters looked quite confused, and Lily decided to help. "For example, if you are meant to have a kid with a bastard – you would do so – to prevent this kid from ceasing to exist…"

And Hugo completed. "It's not as easy as it sounds, but with a spell and a vow, we can tell you everything about the future."

"A vow?" Paige asked.

"The spell could be easily be reversed by the Power of Three… and we know it would be tempting sometimes. So, the vow will work as guarantee," Lily said.

"And you should actually want to, because the vow would be a threat to your lives," Hugo answered truthfully

The sister's frowned.

"It's an unbreakable vow spell," he sentenced.

"What?"

"A promise that would kill if you broke," the man explained.

"I don't know, we have to think," Phoebe sensed no evil from them, but the whole idea scream danger.

Lily was famous for her lack of patience. _Think about what?_ The Charmed Ones, had a problem and they were offering a solution. What was there to think about? They were there to help, but it's not like she wanted to be stuck in the past forever. She decided to encourage the sisters in her on way.

"I suggest you decide quickly. I told you we could just go back and finish it now if you prefer… this is our LAST attempt to save Wyatt, you know." Her brown eyes slowly pierced each one of the sisters. She finally added, "So are you in or are you out?"

The three sisters could see she the young women was tired and the Empath realized that girl was truthfully ready to give up on whatever she was trying to do. And since this apparently meant her nephew's death, Phoebe was the first to respond. "I'm in."

This was enough for Paige. "Oh, what the heck… It's for Wyatt right?"

Piper hadn't said a word in a very long time. She was still in shock with the idea of an evil Wyatt and the girl in front of her… somehow she believed her… she couldn't be such a liar… she was barely out of her teens… just like _Chris_.

Oh, Chris, these young couple was a big reminder that he was also just a boy and looked also very tired and he wasn't lying either. What had those kids had lived through to look so old, to act so old? She wouldn't deny them a chance to protect Wyatt… the last chance apparently. She finally spoke, "Before I agree to that I need you two to promise me one thing. None of you will hurt Wyatt…"

"Look, Piper, I can't really promise you that. Although Chris firmly believes that he can be saved… It might not be possible and we'll have to stop him, somebody has to...

"I'm talking about baby Wyatt".

"I'd never do anything against a toddler… don't worry. We can deal with the adult one, I swear. If we can not save him now… If it is his destiny, we are gonna deal with the consequences in the time it belongs. So?"

"So let's do this." Piper nodded calmly. Her face didn't show a thing from the emotional turmoil she was feeling – fear, anger, suspicious, determination, concern, frustration…. Everything mixed together in a sort of numbness. The only thing she knew is she would do anything to bury this inside and save her son.

"Shouldn't we call Leo for this? I mean, Wyatt is also his son and he can help us, right?" Phoebe asked.

Hugo shook his head. "I don't this so. The spell wouldn't really work on him and the unbreakable vow is not much of a threat if you are technically dead. I don't think it would be safe for him to know everything. We should be careful about what we let him know."

"Ok, so, to the spell, will we? It's not like we have time to spare. Are you ready?" The three sisters stood up and lined in front of the young witch. She pick up her wand and gave it a quickly wave murmuring – Custodi vestri posterus. Now to the vow, will we? Hugo, can you play the bonder? "

"Wait? The spell – was it? How do we know it worked?" Asked the eldest sister.

"Oh, it worked. My aunt came up with it and her spells never backfire."

"With three words?" Piper was still suspicious. No matter how good the girl's aunt was, they couldn't expect such a simple spell like that to achieve such great results risk free.

"Spells tend to be very succinct in Europe. I don't remember ever using one with more than two words…"

"Europe?" Paige asked.

"Yes. Let's do the vow first so we can begin the explaining part. Hugo?"

The guy took his wand and looked at Piper. "You first, alright?"

"Now what?" She asked him accepting the hand Lily offered.

"It's quite easy, you just have to compromise and I will do the rest, ok?"

He placed the tip of his wand above the hand grip. Lily asked in a very steady voice.

"You never will undo, reverse or go against the future protecting spell?"

"I will never do."

A thick tongue of fire winds around their linked hands. The vow was repeated by the other two sisters in the same way.

"That's it. Now to the explaining part before anything odd happens. I'm dying in curiosity here." Phoebe stated as soon as the fire tongue vanished.


	3. New introductions

- All brothers, sisters and cousins from both sides (Halliwells, Weasleys, Potters) exists in my mind. So, I might mention them and use them on a small memory, but they are not playing any important part on the story. There is already too many active characters for me too handle with this cross over thing.

- Melinda exists and plays a really small role on everything – basically one memory to explain why she doesn't appear on the story (I simply cannot erase her from existence. It's stronger than me).

- Bianca also exists and she was Chris fiancée until she died – just as in the show. Keep it in mind.

_**

* * *

Recap from previous chapter:**_

_A thick tongue of fire winds around their linked hands. The vow was repeated by the other two sisters in the same way._

_"That's it. Now to the explaining part before anything odd happens. I'm dying in curiosity here." Phoebe stated as soon as the fire tongue vanished._

* * *

**Chapter 3**

"So, where would you like to start?" Lily asked.

"From the beginning would be nice. How the hell did you end up here?" Piper's voice was harsh. She might be willing to believe in their story for Wyatt's sake and was really interested in understanding what it was about this bunch of future strangers showing up on regular basis, but it didn't mean she enjoyed the idea of people popping into her house threatening her son – even the reason was to stop his future-possibly-evil-self from ever forming.

"We are really close to Chris. We've been to magic school together," Hugo answered.

Lily watched the sisters' reaction to Chris's name. It was clear that they didn't have the faintest idea of who he was and weren't his hugest fans. She knew it was the initial plan to keep as much secret as possible, but yet… he could at least have told them _who _he was. The young Potter was mentally cursing Chris stubbornness on that old discussion when an intrigued Paige interrupted "Magic school?"

Lily wasn't very sure about how to introduce Hogwarts into the conversation. They were in 2004 and part of her father's biography had already been released, but Chris obviously didn't say a thing about it existing for real either. Apparently, Chris hadn't told them anything about anything. _Why do you have to make things so complicated, Chris? _She mentally asked.

Against all odds, the red head decided to proceed carefully or at least what she considered carefully and explained: "We attended a very old and traditional magic school in Europe. And I think you have had one running here for sometime, but since you're not fully civilized–"

Piper was outraged: "What do you mean by not civilized? Are you calling us barbarians or something?"

"Not barbarian, just underdeveloped," Lily attempted to explain. "And don't get angry, Piper… the Charmed Ones are really important to take America from middle ages."

The eldest didn't seem to like her choice of words and Hugo realized there was a reason for those two to be born miles away. Piper and Lily, in the same space and time, would be difficult to handle, let alone in the same room.

As Hugo knew his cousin's attempts to smooth any situation usually failed miserably, he intervened before Piper could bark an answer. "Hey, you two, look at me." The Weasley was quite used to the glare he got from Lily whenever he interrupted her, but Piper look was really scary.

Taking advantage of the small silence, Hugo explained mainly to Paige and Phoebe. "We're not saying we are better than you or anything. It's just our magical society is more organized than yours right now. We have magical hospitals, jails, a ministry… you, well, are have been ruled by a bunch of elders who think they own you for a very long time… so, in a way it is quite feudal."

A small glimpse of approval crossed Piper's eyes when he badmouthed the elders. Hugo decided that it was a good sign and continued.

"And as Lily said, you are really important to change this. We've read all about you in the history books. And your magic school has already been sitting here for _a thousands years"_ Hugo stressed the words admonishing his cousin for not knowing it.

"It's under the elders' control right now," he completed.

Unlike Lily, Hugo knew quite a lot about it. He was Hemione's son and had paid attention to History of Magic classes and read through all the books they should.

"And how have come we never heard about it?" Phoebe asked

"You never needed it. But you're about to," Lily said and waved her head towards the eldest sister. "As soon as Piper realizes it's not fun to have an orbing child in regular pre-school."

Piper was actually struggling with this issue for sometime. She definitely didn't want to home-school Wyatt and she wanted him to have friends his own age. She was happy to know that would be an option and since Chris still managed to make friends of his own despite of being magical, maybe there was a hope for Wyatt to have a normal life.

_If they could save him_ _yet. _Piper conscience screamed. A shred of guilt crossed her mind as she realized they must have lost a lot of time simply because they didn't believe their white-lighter. If only they had helped him, maybe this whole mess would be over. Piper realized she would probably have some serious apologizing to do. But first, she needed to understand Chris a little better and keep this two from going back to the future to kill her son.

Meanwhile, Hugo decided it was time to throw something out in order to keep the atmosphere improving. "And you, Paige, soon you're going to become a magic teacher here and eventually you be the school's headmistress."

"I'm going to be a teacher? I'll have a steady job?" Paige sounded thrilled "I'm starting to really like this future of yours".

"Don't. I will go through hell to council your job, your kids, your husband and your Charmed One duties." Despite of his words, Hugo was happy he as knew delivering some good news.

"Husband?" Paige was shocked. "And kids? As in children? I'm going to be a mother?"

"Yeah. A set of twins girls and a boy." Hugo replied laughing of Paige's surprise.

Phoebe intervened excited: "And what about me?"

"Prudence, Patricia and Pandora," Hugo promptly answered.

"Do I get a husband too?"

"How do you think you manage to so many babies?"

The room had lightened up and they didn't realize Piper was completely lost in her own thoughts, until she dropped a bombshell in the form of a question. "And why does Chris care so much?"

_Ouch! _Lily thought. Since Hugo wasn't really good liar, this one would be up to her. She decided to go with a half truth. "Chris and Wyatt are really close. They've known each other since they were toddlers."

"Really? And how did they meet? I mean, it's not like there are a bunch of white-lighters and powerful witches in the neighborhood, anyway?" Paige asked.

Lily realized half truth wasn't gonna work. _Great. Here from less than an hour and already lying through my teeth. _So she answered: "Magic School. Pre-School."

The answer apparently satisfied the Charmed Ones, but Hugo didn't want to give much time to think about Chris any longer. If they had any intention of keeping Chris's secrecy safe, a change of subject would really come in hand. He took his wand and addressed the sisters.

"Shall we continue? You notice we use wands, right?"

The sister got interested. Lily let a sigh escape and Hugo quickly continued his speech: "That's because bare hand magic like yours is _really_ rare and very few wizards and witches evolve to that. Instead, most of us use magical instruments to channel our powers. In England, we use wands, but the Asians use swords... there's not any specific rule: magic can flow through a variety of objects."

There was confusion all over the sister's face and Lily went to more practical approach.

"You, Piper, you're powers are freezing and blowing, right?" The eldest just nodded. "We can mimic that with a spell we learn in our second year."

Lily picked up her wand and pointed to her cousin: "Hugo, may I?"

"Not the blowing part I hope," he answered.

Lily laughed and said. "You better sit." She waited Hugo let himself on the couch and flipped her wand murmuring: "Petrificus totalus."

The whole room froze – Hugo, as a result of the spell and the sisters from the surprise.

But the red head didn't seem to acknowledge that and continued explaining: "As you can see, it's not exactly the same. Piper couldn't freeze him, since he is a _good_ wizard and he is not entirely petrified – his eyes are moving and he's still breathing, but it does the trick, doesn't it?"

Nobody spoke and she ended the spell: "Finite Incantatem."

Hugo returned to move and looked straight to Phoebe. Following his eyes, Lily finally realized that the middle sister looked completely in shock… which was weird since the Charmed Ones should be used to finding out new strange stuff by now.

Lily asked. "Phoebe, why are you looking at me as if I was an alien?"

"I... I… I know these spells. I know… the school, is Hogwarts, isn't it?" Phoebe was partially confused, partially excited and speaking very fast. "You came out of a Harry Potter book."

Lily laughed. "No, we didn't come out of the book. But, yes, the book is my father's biography."

"Your father? Who is your… of course, your hair, you are a Weasley right?"

"No, I'm a Potter actually. Sorry to spoil it for you, but Harry survives and ends up with Ginny."

Phoebe was delighted. She was a huge fan of the series and was anxiously expecting the sixth book. She had dragged Paige to see every movie with her. The middle sister turned to Hugo:

"And you?"

"Oh, I am a Weasley. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger's son," he answered proudly.

The only person who wasn't really understanding much was Piper. She watched the first movie and didn't like it at all. The whole story was too fictional and, in her former opinion, absurdly non-sense. "I guess I'll have to read those stupid books now, huh?"

This time, the eldest received a harsh look from the red head.

Piper decided to get back to the problem in hands: "OK, so we established you are Lily Potter, he is Hugo Weasley and that my sister deeply admires both of your parents. But now I really don't understand anything. If I remember right, that school of yours is in England, right?"

Lily and Hugo nodded:

"So how did you go to school with Chris? He didn't sound British. Actually, you don't sound very British yourselves…" Piper was truly confused.

"Chris _is _American. And we've been living here for a while." Lily put.

Hugo explained. "Hogwarts teachers didn't really approve the way the elders ran the school, but after Paige became responsible for it, our headmistress, Professor McGonagall, offered you an interchange program and, from that moment on, several American wizards received invitations to join Hogwarts on their eleventh birthday, including Chris and Wyatt."

"Did I send Wyatt to Hogwats?" Piper asked widening her eyes.

"No, you didn't. Let's just say he was quickly becoming a rebel and you preferred to keep a closer eye on his teenage years," Hugo said.

"Which is a good thing since Wyatt is powerful enough bare handed and would be a really pain in the ass if he mastered a wand." Lily hoped offending Wyatt _a little_ would prevent another wave of questions about the sisters' white-lighter. She preferred to deal with an angry Piper rather than with the suspicious one.

But Piper didn't answer the provocation. Her brain was trying to put all the new information together. And although she thought much of the strangers' story made sense, she couldn't deal with the fact of that evil Wyatt they kept mentioning.

Piper's unconscious was still trying to find flaws in their story and she finally came up with one. "You told us dozens powerful wizards could stop Wyatt. Why didn't they? Where are those so-called powerful wizards?"

"In their own homes, living their own lives and dealing with their own set of problems," Lily replied.

This time, Phoebe was the one who came with a question. "Living where? Chris told us the whole world was doomed."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Let's just say that Chris was overly dramatic in this statement. The world is fine. Wyatt just ruined your world: USA and Mexico."

"And Canada, Lil, don't forget about Canada. Magic is been also exposed there too" Hugo emended.

Paige jumped from her seat: "Wait. Magic has been exposed? How can the rest of the world be fine then?"

Hugo who was tired of the ping-pong they were playing. _Its not like they could avoid the dark part forever,_ he thought before saying, "Let me explain exactly what's going on there: Wyatt dominated North America and magic is exposed in his territory. He managed to expel all the cleaners from his land, but they built a barrier around it. It's been a lot of work, but the cleaners keep altering the memories of any person who comes out of America."

"Not that many people come out alive."

Hugo cut his friend with an annoyed look and continued. "As far as the rest of the world is concerned, America suffered several terrorist attacks, had a major economy break down and got into a civil war. The rest of the world barely gets involved because getting in other countries business is apparently what put you in trouble to begin with. And not many muggles want to go there, so, it's manageable."

"And what about the innocents here? What happened to them?" Piper asked concerned.

Hugo words got stuck in his throat – the rest of the story was really ugly. He could finally understand why Chris hadn't told the sisters the whole story. He wouldn't be capable of hurting his own family like that. And apparently neither could he.

Lily knew the Charmed Ones wouldn't like hearing how far Wyatt had gone. Evil is a really broad description. But they needed the sisters to understand the full extension of what they were trying to prevent. They had to work their butts off on this specific mission and Lily knew the Halliwells wouldn't fully compromise with a half story. At least, Chris never did.

"As soon as magic was exposed, many muggles–"

"People without magical powers," Hugo emended.

"Well, many _people without magical powers," _Lily disapproved his interruption. She continued, "started hunting witches down and burning them at stakes. But Wyatt was too powerful for them to handle. He slaughtered a great part of the population with the help of the new friends he brought up from the underworld. He built up a pretty big demon army to defend his empire and the ones who survived were turned into slaves. And a few _people_ _without magical power _who escaped are out there still playing inquisition."

When Lily stopped talking the room was frozen. The sisters started getting an idea about how bad things actually were and the image of an older Wyatt slaughtering and slaving innocents was really disturbing.

Piper didn't want to believe that her baby, that sweet little boy sound asleep on the playpen, could hurt people deliberately. Her witch instincts told her to trust those future kids, but her motherly instincts couldn't cope with that. Was she such a bad mother she would end up raising a tyrant? It couldn't be. When she finally spoke, she asked the one question Lily and Hugo had feared since the beginning.

"And why didn't we stop him? Why did I let him go this far?"

Hugo came forward and grabbed the eldest sister hands. He tried to speak as softly as he could, although there wasn't any nice way of giving the news.

"I'm sorry, Piper. You weren't there any longer."

"What do you mean by…? Are we dead? All of us"

"A demon killed you when Wyatt was sixteen. He snapped right after that. And Paige and Phoebe never stood a chance against him without the Power of Three." And looking two the younger sisters he added, "You're trapped unconscious in his mansion for years under a kind of dark spell that we couldn't figure out yet."

Piper let his hand and stormed out of the room. As she arrived at the bathroom, she let the tears drop and she cried her heart out. Wyatt couldn't do this to his own flash and blood, he couldn't hurt his family! But apparently he did and she wasn't even there for him, for them. She was a horrible mother who died and let her child go insane. She sat on the floor and cried more than she could think it would be possible for a person.

In the attic, nobody said a word for a very long time. Phoebe had tears running silently down her face and Paige had an empty look. The future cousins didn't really know what to say to help.

_Thanks Merlin Chris is not here. It would kill him to see his mother and aunts at this state._ Lily finally understood why he preferred to keep his family in the dark.

A few minutes later, Piper finally got control of herself. She stood up and washed her face. Looking at the mirror, she realized that she was still here for Wyatt now. She remembered Chris. He thought they could save Wyatt in their time and now she was ready to give whatever the young white-lighter was up against a hell of a fight. Shoving away the regrets and feelings about the way she treated Chris so far, she went out of the bathroom ready to do whatever it took to prevent that future from happening.

As the eldest walked back to the attic, Phoebe could feel her change of heart empathically. She felt her older sister's resolution and knew that Piper was ready to fight for her child. And she wouldn't let her sister to battle alone, Phoebe stood up and placed herself beside the eldest.

Paige didn't need empathic powers to get it. _Whatever happens we will going to face as we always do as a family._ Paige remembered the words Piper used so many times before and joined her sisters.

Piper finally spoke. "What exactly do we have to do?"

Lily and Hugo were amazed by the resolution they could see in the Charmed Ones' eyes. Those eyes that were full of despair just moments before now showed they were ready to face and do anything as a family. They finally recognized the Halliwell sister described in their history books and they finally understood why Chris so firmly believed that these three women could save Wyatt.

Lily was the one who answered. "I think you're stuck with Chris on that"

_

* * *

Meanwhile_

A different Chris was walking on an empty street. This Chris was no longer crying and had a confident look in his eyes. He got completely wrecked and up on his feet so many times in those last years that it practically came natural to him.

Chris started a mental talk to himself. _"Alright, it is way past time you get over the self pity. You can not give up on Wyatt. You CANNOT go down without a hell of a fight, ok?"_

With that statement, his mother's voice suddenly echoed in his head,_ "We're Halliwells and that is what Halliwells do: we fight" _Chris could perfectly remember his mom saying that to him and to the rest of the family on several occasions when he was growing up.

This memory brought up the worst day of his life back. The day his whole world was destroyed. His mother died on his birthday right in front of his eyes and he could do nothing to help. Chris would never forgive himself for not being able to save her, to protect her. His heart sank again, but shoved the pain away.

"_You don't have time for it now. You do have a plan." _ His conscience stated.

A mental picture of Lily practically formed before his eyes saying "_And it is a BAD plan, Christopher. And I'm the bad idea expert here. Just don't."_ The mental image rolled her eyes annoyed at his stubbornness. Chris had had this dialogue with his friend so many times over the years that he could feel her there with him. Oh, he missed Lily… he missed all his friends. Chris missed when he could count on people to back him up whenever a bad plan back fired.

But Lily wasn't there. His friends weren't there. He was all alone to deal with the whole thing… And this could be a good thing, after all. Maybe Lily and Hugo got back to England and gave up this nonsense of taking his problems in their hands. Maybe they got back home – safe.

"_You know her better than that." _His own mind adverted. _"You can go on a stubbornness contest against Lily and it would last FOREVER. She's probably trying to get herself killed because of your problems _-_ again._

And Hugo would never go and leave her behind. He knew his friends were still there fighting, hopefully alive. The white-lighter simply hated to remember that so many were hurt because of him, because he couldn't stop his brother. People were just in danger because he couldn't find the courage to do what should be done.

Chris felt tears coming to his eyes when he remembered the last stroke to his soul. _Bianca. _She died because of him, to protect him. And he didn't even have time to mourn her. He couldn't give up on changing the past – if he saved Wyatt, Bianca wouldn't have to sacrifice herself and everything would be fine. They would all be fine – maybe even his mother. The clock was ticking. Chris knew that whatever got to Wyatt, happened before he was born, so he had a few months to save the next two decades.

_If you fail this one, you're gonna have to do what you have to do or she will. You do know that. _The Halliwell didn't want to even consider a battle between Lily x Wyatt. He wouldn't like any of the possible outcomes.

He excused to another person in his mind. _I'm so sorry for putting into this, Harry._

Chris's heart warmed up by the thought of the guy he truly considered a hero. Ever since his mom died, Harry Potter was the one who helped him cope with the loss, who had taught him how to go trough without her. Harry was the one who told him the truth about Wyatt and the only, besides his friends, who believed he could manage a resistance.

And Chris knew he owned the whole resistance to him – since Harry never left his back ever since: he trained Chris, planned with him, helped him every step of the way, even trusting his own daughter safety to him. Harry Potter was the closest Chris had of a father figure since he was fourteen, since Leo–.

_Don't even start with the Leo thing. You should sure as hell be over it by now _– Chris's conscience shouted.

Chris now understood that Wyatt had been creating problems. And after his mom died, his father didn't have time or mind to deal with him. Leo couldn't be comforting him when all those innocents were in danger. Chris understood now Leo never had the time to deal with his pain when his older brother was going insane.

_I know it wasn't Leo's fault. He thought I was going to be ok under with them. I understand. He thought this was the best for me. – don't I?_

His conscience didn't even bother to answer. Although Chris tried to rationalize it for ages, somewhere deep inside he could never forgive Leo for not being there when he needed. For dumping he back in Hogwarts after his mom died. He would never forgive his father for not telling him about Wyatt, for treating him like he didn't have anything to do what was going on, for never trusting him. Chris could never forgive the fact that Leo didn't thought he was powerful to at least try dealing Wyatt.

But the younger Halliwell was the one person on earth who knew Wyatt the best. And for that he was sure his brother couldn't be naturally evil as claimed. They shared and channel to his soul since he was born and that tyrant bastard wasn't really his brother. Wyatt's soul wasn't dark on its own. Chris couldn't explain to other people why he was so sure of that, but he knew his brother needed to be saved. And since he couldn't count on the Charmed Ones on that anymore, he would have to do it on his own.

"_BAD IDEA, CHRISTOPHER." _Lily's voice echoed again.

His imaginary Lily was right on this one. He was hungry, wet, filthy and quite surely running a fever – as he always did when he was deeply hurt inside. Chris didn't have one of those in years but the whole being-thrown-out-of-his-own-house-by-his-own-mother really broke him. He remembered Piper's harsh words: he was by himself in this timeline.

_I know it is, Lil, but recognizing a bad idea never stopped us before. _He mentally answered to the image on his mind.

"Time for a more aggressive approach," Chris finally stated. He orbed to the underworld.


	4. Explanations

_**Recap on last chapter**_

_Piper finally spoke: What exactly what we have to do? _

_Lily was the one who answered: "I think you're stuck with Chris on that."_

* * *

Hugo noticed a concerned look crossing Piper's face and decided to give the sisters something to concentrate on before they went off on their white-lighter. Chris not being there was a blessing – he didn't have to witness the Charmed Ones being hurt by the future bad news.

"Piper, I know you want to act, but it would be better if you knew the whole story first." Hugo said.

"You people told us time is running out. If we have to save Way–"

Lily interrupted. "An overstatement to keep you focused. Your _dear _son is just starting to consider going out of borders but…" The red haired explained.

"One more reason to act quickly, don't you think?" Piper voice was anxious and annoyed.

If Wyatt went abroad, he would be sent hell before he could blink, that was a fact. And _Hell_ – as Hermione recently discovered in a book nobody touched for half a millennium – ran in a different time and space mode, which meant that no souls could be brought back from there by changing the past.

Lily didn't really care about losing Wyatt forever, but since Chris being in the past meant he would keep both memories if the timelines were split, he would be devastated. That was why they were there in the first place: to warn the white-lighter. But there was no reason to alarm the Charmed Ones – they really had time.

"No, Piper. Wyatt is crazy, not stupid," Lily replied. "It's a big strike and he will plan it carefully. We have time, Wyatt usually plans for months."

It didn't matter how long they got, Piper wouldn't postpone the saving Wyatt mission any more. If they were stuck with Chris on that, they would have to get Chris there. _I will apologize and we'll be working on this immediately. _Piper was insecure of her last thought and actually just hoped he answered her call:

"Chr–"

"Silentio!" With a quick flip of her wand, Lily stopped the older sister before she could finish. The surprise caused by her voice sudden disappearance was enough to turn Piper's attention to the Potter. As no blue orbs formed in the room, Lily was relieved that Piper was not able to concentrate enough on the call.

"Just don't," she warned Piper. "Can I break the spell?"

The mute sister nodded, narrowing her eyes. "What the hell did–?" She asked as soon as her voice was restored.

"I magically shut you up."

"I noticed that. But why?" Piper was pretty irritated with her interference.

"We shouldn't get Chris here just yet. Let's just say he and I strongly disagree about how much you should know about the future," Lily explained.

"But now we have the spell and the vow," Paige intervened. "You told us we're safe. He doesn't have to worry about it."

"That's right, but Chris is a little bit neurot–"

"Neurotic. We know." Phoebe completed.

"So what do we do then?" Piper asked anxiously

"We go along with my back up plan," Lily put and Hugo moaned. "Stop crying, it's perfectly good plan."

"They were all good, until…" Hugo replied to his cousin and then turned to the sisters "You should be grateful Chris is responsible for the intellectual planning of the main mission."

"They should not," Lily replied turning to the sisters seriously. "I get that you don't approve Chris keeping things from you." The sisters didn't make a move to contradict. "Well, welcome to the club – I don't' agree with this either."

"And what are you suggesting?" Pheobe asked.

"If you fight Chris's decisions in any step of the way, you will fail. You need to trust him blindly and the only way this will happen is if you know _everything."_

"I'd really like to know _everything_." Phoebe said and got a glare from Piper, who was not very happy about losing any more time and really wanted fighting whatever evil was behind her son.

Phoebe pleaded. "Come on, Piper. We can't even imagine what we are up against. It's a great chance to understand things and get prepared to help Chris."

"And you are the one with trusting issues here." Paige added.

"Alright, alright. But I still don't think we should lose any more time." Piper was annoyed by the fact that her sisters were not supportive on this matter, but then she couldn't think about anything to do at the moment. Piper asked the foreigners. "That's the best we'll get for now, huh?"

"Yep." Lily replied.

"Ok, then." Piper agreed in discontent with her defeat.

Lily pointed to a small bag that was lying on the floor unnoticed since their arrival and asked her cousin "Hugo, get me the pensive."

The red-haired man widened his blue eyes. "But I…I didn't bring a pensive, Lil."

"But you were supposed to gather the supplies for the trip!"

"Well, it never crossed my mind we wou–"

"Never crossed your mind? I packed memories, for Merlin's sake." Lily sighed. "And you claim to Hermione's son! I've always suspected you were adopted."

"It's just…" Hugo couldn't find a way of excusing himself. "Sorry," he used his best puppy eyes.

The Charmed Ones watched the discussion between the cousins. Phoebe and Paige didn't know how to help them and Piper didn't have the faintest idea of what a pensive could be.

"Alright." Lily started pacing in circles. "Could you conjure one? You're always good at conjuring stuff…"

"It's impossible to conjure magical artifacts. Didn't you pay attention to any of our classes?"

Lily simple waved and put. "Could we buy one?"

"Not enough money." He answered.

"We could lend you money." Piper interrupted eager to help.

"Dollars won't fit. We can't exchange it." And piercing Hugo with her eyes "We aren't even born, let alone have a register in Gringotes, right?" Lily lightened up her tone asking "How much do we have? Maybe we could deal a used one or something…"

"200 galleons, give it or take." Hugo closed his eyes knowing his cousin wouldn't like hearing that.

"WHAT?" The Potter shouted. "We could be here for months and are supposed to live with that?"

"We were coming to San Francisco. I brought dollars instead."

Lily let herself at the couch. The room was completely silent as nobody knew what could be done to solve the problem in hands. After a few moments, the Potter jumped from her sit wearing her eureka face. "I got it!"

"Does it involve robbing a magical bank?" Hugo sounded concerned.

"No, dear cousin, nothing illegal." Lily said walking to the middle of the room. "But I'll be gone for a while, so you should grab something to eat"

"Would you care to tell us where you going?" Hugo asked.

"Transatlantic trip. See you!"

Lily pointed her wand towards herself and flamed away.

* * *

The sister's were in shock. Piper's mind was rushing! _She flamed? How the hell did she flame? _All the Halliwells were thinking the same thing: _The girl was a demon. _But, if she was a demon trying to deceive them she would have been more careful.

Hugo acknowledged the confused expression on the sisters' face and tranquilized them. "It's not demoniac at all, I promise."

The Charmed Ones still looked suspicious.

"Take a sit… Let me just explain a few more things." He asked.

Hugo's voice was so confident, the sisters just obeyed. A small smile formed on the Weasley's mouth. Being friends with powerful wizards like Lily and Chris all his life should have made him fell undermined. He didn't even begin to match Lily's fire power and Chris, well, he was good in everything he tried.

But his mother made a great deal of effort to make sure he wouldn't have the emotional range of a teaspoon. And, as Hermione hardly ever failed, Hugo could look just like his father, but was a well of sensibility. He knew he was as essential to the resistance, to his friends because he was the one with the people skills. Chris was way too worried and constantly got himself in trouble because of his tendency to overprotect everybody. And Lily, well, his cousin's temper never had helped – at all.

"I know you're a bit confused by the whole flaming, but that was just a non verbal spell"

"I don't remember anything like that from the books." Phoebe stated.

"Well, not all the spells were on the books, Phoebe. And this specific one, nobody besides Lil and aunt Ginny can perform. Not even my mom – and this _is_ huge."

"She is Harry Potter's daughter. And he was a very powerful wizard, wasn't he?" Piper felt a sudden urge to find a plea for Hugo because she simply trusted him. That was weird.

Phoebe was not convinced by her sister's comment and narrowed her eyes. "As far I know from the books, Harry Potter was good, but not particularly over powerful"

"It's not about my uncle. When Aunt Ginny got pregnant with her first born, she… well, she almost burned the kitchen down with a spell to light the oven and flooded the house in the attempt to extinguish the fire… Everyone blamed it on hormones."

Phoebe and Paige were listening carefully, but Piper had Get. To. The. Point look and Hugo continued.

"After she gave birth, odd things continued happening with her spells… a small tornado trying to dry some clothes and an earthquake when Aunt Ginny was mad at her boss. And that's when mom figured out elemental powers, fire, water, air, earth. It's related to the fact that she is the seventh dau–"

"Daughter of a seventh daughter and the first female born in the Weasley family for generations." Phoebe completely finally making some sense out of it.

"Exactly. It's ancient magic. Aunt Ginny can also cast spells to open portals through time and space which is actually how I and Lil got here." Hugo remembered that Weasleys and Potters couldn't make the Book of Shadows spells work in any way.

"Lily inherited those powers from her?" Paige asked.

"Not all. The seventh daughter magic loses force every generation until it disappears: that's why it's so rare. Lil is good in fire spells… You saw her doing a _flagra-via-or-something_ spell, an ancient form apparition. She prefers it since she found it wasn't blocked in Hogwarts and couldn't be tracked by the Ministry."

After a brief silence, Paige just spoke in a mocking tone. "Either that's the true or you are a damm quick thinking liar."

The atmosphere lightened up and they were soon chatting about the Harry Potter books as they left for the kitchen. Piper didn't follow – she was leaning over the playpen watching her innocent baby. She grabbed Wyatt putting a kiss in his forehead and murmured: "We're gonna fix it, baby. Mom will protect you from everything, ok?" Carrying the sleeping toddler, she left.

_

* * *

_

_Meanwhile_

Lily flamed in front of a house in Godric's Hollow. After a brief moment considering the best way to approach, she walked to the front door, opened it and let herself in screaming at the top her lungs.

"MOOOOOM, MOOOOOOOOM"

"Just a moment, Ginny." Molly replied from the kitchen.

Harry Potter was waking out of his office and barely took the eyes of the pile of documents he was checking. He approached Lily and leaned over to kiss her hello.

"Ewwww, Dad!"

Harry was shocked. _Did she say "dad"? _Giving the first real look at the young woman standing in his house, he realized that although she looked a lot like Ginny, she wasn't his wife. But before he could formulate a question, the front door opened again and his real wife came in.

Oddly, Ginny didn't look as shocked as Harry was by the girl in the middle of her living room. She seemed rather surprised and curious and simply walked towards the girl asking: "Are you who I think you are?"

Lily nodded smiling at her. "Hi, mom!"

Mollly who has come from the kitchen, watched the scene astonished, but mute.

Ginny had kids of her own by then and promptly turned to mother-mode without noticing the confused look on her husband's face. She hugged her daughter and asked pulling out from the embrace. "In what kind of trouble did you get yourself into to be here now?"

Harry started considering the possibility of being in dream. It didn't make any sense – the strange woman was just a couple years younger than he was. He placed the documents on the table and smoothly asked his wife. "Ginny, honey, what is going on?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Ginny answered comfortable with the situation. "Look how much she took from me, hair, stand, eyes… She is our daughter, Harry, from the future."

Harry just stared at his wife for a few minutes trying to digest the new information. But he couldn't.

"Ok, ok," the Auror was trying his best to not freak out, "but doesn't it strike you as odd the fact that WE DON'T HAVE ANY DAUGHTERS?"

"Apparently, we will." Ginny replied calmly.

The answer didn't even begin to make things sound more acceptable. So Harry tried a new approach. "Alright, Ginny, you seem to understand what is going on here. Could you, please, walk me through it before I voluntarily apparate to St. Mungus psychiatric ward?"

The two young women seemed amused at Harry's confusion.

"Hermione foresaw something like that could happen one day since one of my new ability to cast spells that involve portals through time and space. I guess I'll eventually master it," Ginny explained and Lily silently agreed.

It made sense – in really a strange way - and Harry was amazed by how easily he could get used to whole idea. But after a life full of magical surprises, nothing was actually odd enough to scare him. He had been through so many weird for stuff for the last decade that not-normal was normal around him. With that in mind, Harry spoke to _his daughter!_

"So, you're a Potter? How can I be sure?" Harry tried to sound threatening but he failed miserably since the girl's reply started with a laugh.

"When I started Hogwarts, I got my self in the hospital wing in less than three hours. _Outstanding, even for a Potter_, according to Madam Pomfray."

"Oh, Merlin!" Ginny intervened. "There is not any hope I'll have one quiet and obedient child, is there?"

"Nope." Lily laughed.

"Welcome, home, dear." Harry hugged his newly discovered daughter, insecurely asking "Can you at least tell us your name? I wouldn't like to keep calling you "dear." I promise to name you properly…"

"It's Lily. Lily Luna Potter"

"Makes sense." Harry stated.

Molly finally walked into the conversation. She had absolutely no idea about how whatever was happening was possible. But one thing she knew – that girl screamed Weasley from every pore of her being and was definitely a part of the family. And since that family was so used to embracing new members, no matter where they came from, Molly took the girl from Harry's arms and said. "I'm just finishing dinner, honey. I'll set another plate on the table."

"No, grandma. This is just a quick visit."

"So, I'll prepare you something for the trip."

Molly sweetly ran her fingers through Lily's face and left to her comfort zone: the kitchen. Lily smiled at her grandmother leaving. She knew feeding people was her way of saying welcome.

Lily was amazed by how easily her family recognized and accepted her and thought of Chris: his family didn't even know who he was and apparently he was having a hard time at his own home. The Charmed Ones didn't trust him at all. But Chris was just getting a bit of his own poison - he had always been so suspicious himself.

Ginny interrupted her thoughts. "Quick visit, huh? This puts us back to: what kind of trouble are you in to be here?"

"It's not me actually… It's a friend of mine. His brother is evil and we were fighting…"

A wrinkle of concern formed on the older Potters' forehead.

"Don't give me that look, Dad. It's not like I could have a risk free existence coming from this background." Lily put.

"And do-did-or-will I agree with this fighting of yours?" Ginny asked

"You didn't actually agree. But I AM a Potter, so…?"

"See, Potter, it's your entire fault. I should have never married you!" Ginny slapped her husband's shoulder slightly. "Trouble runs in your genes."

"Said Saint Ginevra Weasley," Harry sarcastically replied to his wife and turned serious to his daughter "So what do you need from us?

"I just need your pensive for now: the one Uncle Charlie gave you as wedding gift. Me and James didn't break it until I was seven so I guess it must be here somewhere," Lily ended with a yellow smile.

Ginny didn't like the idea of having her pensive broken and threw her daughter a reprimand look before adding. "I'll get it to you." The young mother disappeared upstairs.

Harry was already amazed with the idea of having a daughter in the future. It would be nice to have a little girl running around. He asked. "Lily, honey, can I ask you a not-compromising question?"

"Sure"

"How long do I have before you and your brothers completely turn my hair gray?"

Lily laughed "Not long, Dad. Sorry."

Ginny came downstairs and placed the pensive on the coffee table. "Here it is. Try to keep it in one piece so James can join the "break-mommy-stuff" party, will you?"

"I'll try me best," Lily smiled and stated "I should get going now. There are people waiting for me."

"Do you need any floo or can you apparate?" Harry asked.

"I got it covered, Dad."

Ginny hugged her youngest one more time and told her. "I'm really glad you came looking for us. If you need anything else, don't mind asking, ok? And take care."

"I knew I could count on you two." Lily answered preparing to leave.

Ginny, sounding exactly like the mother Lily grew up with, said. "Don't you dare leaving without saying Grandma goodbye or she will ground you for life in the minute you're born – _with my blessing_."

"Alright, Mom," Lily laughed at her mother and headed to the kitchen.

Harry placed his hand on Ginny's shoulder and the young Potter couple watched their daughter leaving. The youngest Potter stopped halfway and turned to them adding. "I'd get some rest if I were you. It's not long before I get here."

Lily disappeared into the kitchen. After hearing a long list of advices from Grandma, she finally could get herself out of the house with a paper bag full of homemade food. Nobody left Molly without being fed. She looked around and made sure nobody was watching and flamed.

* * *

The last demon was a lot of hard work for Chris and the vanquishing took much more time than he thought it would. He was sitting on a rock on an empty cave catching his breath.

Anyone who looked at the young white-lighter could see he was tired and not feeling well at all. But Chris couldn't stop just yet – he was not half through his mental list of possibilities of who might have turned Wyatt and there was no time to waste. Chris wasn't able to think straight anymore but he could not stop. Resting wasn't really an option if he wanted to succeed.

_BAD idea! _The voice echoed in his mind as he stood up and walked towards the next target.

* * *

As Lily appeared back in the empty attic and cried "Tin—tiny lady with big heavy object."

Hugo showed up running with the Charmed Ones on his heels. He waved his wand towards the pensive and lifted it to a table next to the wall saying: "You can levitate things. Think about it."

Lily just snorted.

The Weasley felt a well-know the smell from the paper bag his cousin was holding and concluded. "You went to see Grandma?"

"No, I went to see Mom and Dad. Grandma just happened to be there today. Everything is fine."

"Fine and you don't usually come in the same sentence." Hugo replied.

The Charmed Ones were curiously admiring the object on the table. It was a stony basin covered in mystic runes filled with an unknown kind of material.

"What does it do?" Piper asked.

"That is a pensive. It's used to watch memories. We will show us ours." Lily replied.

Piper just nodded. Paige and Phoebe were still analyzing the artifact amazed to see a pensive from Harry Potter personally. It was smaller than the ones on the movies, but really impressive. It screamed magic.

Hugo asked. "So, what's first?"

"The beginning is always a good starting point." Paige answered.

Nobody seemed to have a different idea and Lily raised her wand and took a silver hair like wisp from her head placing it in the pensive.

"Ready to go in?" Lily asked the Halliwells. "Hugo, show the girls how it's done"

Hugo silently agreed and placed his head into the pensive.

"What is in there?" Piper asked afraid of what she could find out about the future.

"You want to know all from square one, don't you?" Lily put and completed. "Hogwarts it is."

Although the Charmed Ones didn't look comfortable with the idea of repeating Hugo's move, they finally followed.


	5. Old happy years

_A/N: __This fic is being written completely out of order as I just put things down to get some ideas out of my head. (I didn't even consider publishing it for a long time). The first part I got on paper was specifically the Chris revelation one and it's still my favorite. Then, I started writing the resistance scenes because those scenes just popped into my head… But for every chapter I got on paper, dozens of questions rose and I had to imagine a back up story to justify that… (E.g.: how would Chris stay in Hogwarts till 17 knowing Wyatt had lost his mind? It would be too out of character for me… and then I thought of an explanation, good or bad I don't know, but there will be one) That same thing happened to many other issues during writing._

_I finally__ decided to walk through the past-of-the-future with memories and that ended longer than I previously planned. I just don't want to jump it because, well, it's written now. I apologize for not getting the adult Chris back but I can't imagine him allowing this whole past out in the wind! And I just don't want to rush it and risk making it senseless. So, in summary: the fic will be long, really long as I can clearly spot four acts… It starts Hogwarts like and gradually turns into Charmed universe. I can only promise not dropping it halfway since I've got most of this scratched. I hope you're patient enough and enjoy it. _

_And thank you__ so much for the reviews: I never expected anyone to read it and I'm thrilled there is actually an audience! (Ok, silly me, but I am happy whenever I get an e-mail alert.).Well, that's just an apology – mainly to myself, I guess – because I've been postponing the part I like the most and think you are willing to get there too. I'll try my best to update on weekly basis._

_Sorry about any mistakes. English is not my first language and my beta didn't check the author's note. __(And we should really thank my beta-reader Piper Chris Melinda Halliwell for making this fic even possible!)_

_

* * *

_

_Lily's memory – 2015 (Hogwarts – 1__st__ year)_

It had been a calm night in Hogwarts hospital ward, which was expected since the year had just started. The only student there was already taken care of and Madam Pomfrey prepared to call it a night when a monitor in a Gryffindor uniform came in escorting an eleven-year-old girl.

The older student informed "I think I've got a dislocated shoulder for you."

Madam Pomfrey sighed and walked to the injured girl, guiding her to a vacant bed next to a dark haired boy who watched the scene with his amazingly green eyes wide open in curiosity.

The nurse dismissed the monitor. "You can go, Lucas. I'll take care of her."

The senior student just left.

"Here less than three ours and already in the hospital ward?" Madam Pomfrey reprimanded the girl while mending her shoulder with a flip of the wand. "Outstanding, even for a _Potter_. You might have set a new record."

"He got here before I did," Lily tried to defend herself pointing to the boy and his pair of green eyes just widened even more.

"He doesn't count: he _is_ sick. Drink it." The school nurse handed the new patient a potion.

"Ech!" Lily complaint after swallowing the liquid.

Madam Pomfrey ignored her reaction and took the tray with empty vials preparing to leave. "It doesn't matter anyway. You're both staying for the night. I'll be next door if you need me."

The lights of the room magically dimmed.

As soon as they were left alone, Lily got comfortable on the bed and decided to start up a conversation with her roommate for the night. "I hate healing potions, don't you?" The boy simply agreed without saying a word. She insisted. "Sick, huh? Are you feeling better?"

Again, he just nodded silently and the Lily realized he wasn't very talkative. But it would be a very long night and since none of them seemed to feel like sleeping anytime soon she decided to try a more elaborated line of questioning. "Why are you here?"

"Fever. Homesick." The boy's voice finally came up.

_Two words to answer a Why question!_ _Great!_ Lily other student just wouldn't cooperate. With a resigned, loud sigh, the little Potter leaned against her pillow giving up the original idea. It would be a very boring first night at Hogwarts.

The awkward silence was unexpectedly broken by a tease: "So, the record is mine, then?"

Surprised, Lily sat back wearing a huge smile and answered "You wish! I'm Lily, by the way."

"Chris. What happened to you?" The young white-lighter smiled back at the girl who seemed thrilled with his sudden interest in chatting.

"Involuntary magic!" Lily promptly explained. "James, my oldest brother, was picking on me. A few windows got burst and I ended up under a statue."

The mention of an older brother made Chris sink in his bed with a sad look on his eyes. Lily noticed it, but wasn't willing to let him stop talking so she changed the subject.

"What house did you get sorted in?"

"Ravenclaw," Chris replied in a neutral tone.

"Oh!" A sorry interjection slipped her mouth.

Chris didn't understand much about the house thing even though his aunts tried to talk to him about the school. The Halliwells even showed him one or two old movies about a Harry guy, but he wasn't interested in Hogwarts and didn't pay much attention. At that moment though, Chris wished he could remember in which house he wouldn't like to be stuck in because he was quite sure there was one.

The young white-litter decided to simply ask "Is Ravenclaw a bad house?"

"No, it's not. It's that I just wished you were in Gryffindor, so we would be friends." Lily sounded really disappointed with the fact they were sorted apart.

"Are you in Gryffindor?"

"My whole family is," Lily answered proudly.

Again, something she said slightly broke the boy. Lily mentally reprimanded herself remembering he was sick because he missed home. The young Potter was oddly in silence when Chris interrupted her thoughts. "But we could be friends from different houses, couldn't we?"

"I guess so. Would you like to be my friend?" Lily was happy again.

Although he thought the question was a bit weird, he agreed. "Sure."

"That's great! You'd be my first friend ever!" The Potter was really excited with the idea.

Her last sentence surprised Chris the most. "Don't you have_ any_ friends?"

Lily replied without giving a second thought about what she was bringing up. "Well, I do have a lot of cousins and brothers. But they are family and they are supposed to love me. You're the first friend I made."

_Couldn't you stop mentioning your family, please?_ Chris knew it would be a strange demand and didn't say it out loud, but he missed his family so much. The only thing that kept him from orbing back home at that minute was the fact that his mother would be really angry if he broke out of school in the middle of the night and the last thing he wanted was to get his mom mad.

Lily realized Chris looked upset again and regretted what she just said. She decided to do something to charm her new _friend_ and started revolving her pockets until she found what she was looking for.

Lily extended a hand full of candy and said."Jelly slugs?"

Chris narrowed his eyes. He didn't like the name or the appearance of what he was being offered, but politely accepted one because he didn't want to disappoint the girl. He watched her putting one of the slugs on her mouth, but couldn't cope with the idea of doing the same. `

Lily realized the boy was looking disgusted to her treat and came to a conclusion she mouthed in the form of a question, "Muggle-born?"

"Muggle…?" Chris didn't understand it.

"Definitely muggle," She concluded from his confusion. "Your parents are not magical, are they?"

"Oh, they are. My mother is a witch and my father is a white-lighter"

That time, the Potter was the one with a question mark on the forehead: "A white what?"

"It's kind of a guardian angel. He looks at us from up there."

"Oh!" Lily's question was almost a whisper. "Is he dead?"

"Yes." Chris replied carelessly and, before the girl could say the "_I'm sorry," _her eyes showed, he completed. "But that is ok, he was dead long before I was born and dad comes to visit us every now and then." _He comes to visit Wyatt, at least,_ Chris thought.

Lily couldn't really understand the concept, but got another glimpse of sadness going through the dark-haired boy's eyes. She spoke in the closest she could for a caring tone: "Is that why you're so sad? You miss your father…"

_Definitely not_ – The young Halliwell's mind tried to convince him.

Chris didn't want to be jealous, but he had struggled with being just the younger brother of the Twice-Blessed all his life. His brother was powerful and demanded more attention. And that was why – according to Chris's line of thinking – his family shipped him to a school overseas, so he could be properly educated as they worked on the _greater mission_ of teaching Wyatt. Chris didn't want to be a burden, but intimately wished he wasn't sent away from all of them.

"My dad is fine, really." The boy finally answered struggling with the tears that insisted to come to his eyes. He turned his head to a window hoping his _new friend _didn't notice it and stated. "I just miss my mom," he finished trying to get a grip on himself.

Lily knew interchange students – which she recognize by the accent – didn't have a clue of what was expecting them, but they were where she considered the best place in the whole world and Chris would love Hogwarts once he gave it a chance. In her opinion, the boy just needed an incentive and everything would be fine.

"You'll feel better once we start classes, I promise," Chris looked back at her and Lily lively completed "Just wait for our first flying lessons."

_Flying? _Chris was somehow contaminated by her enthusiasm for the first time since he got at the 9 ¾ platform: flying sounded really interesting. But his glow didn't last long and he just put truthfully. "I didn't want to come in the first place. I just want to get back home."

"Look, Chris," Cheering up wasn't helping and Lily's patience ran out, so she used the reprimand tone her mother often used to her "We are in Hogwarts now – we have to start acting as _grown ups_. Stop being such a momma's boy."

_Momma's boy?_ Wyatt used to call him that, Chris thought. _Am I really a momma's boy?_ Chris started considering that maybe he could deal with school now that he had a friend there. And if he stayed, he wouldn't disappoint his family. After all, Piper was so happy when he got the letter... his mother would be proud of him. And it would prove Wyatt that he was as independent as his older brother. _It could work._

Regretting his previous decisions, Chris confessed. "There's nothing we can do now. I wrote mom a letter saying I wanted to go home… and I already gave it to Madame Pomfrey"

"Well, we have to fix that," Lily put in a simplistic way.

"How? The moment she reads that I was sick, she's picking me up."

Lily gave the situation a quick thought and started drowning Chris in questions and statements. "Did she send your mother an owl? How long ago? Where to? We have to come up with a solution. You can't leave the school before you know the school. It's fantastic here, trust me."

Chris got lost in his own thoughts: _God, Lily spoke faster than his aunts. Did she ever stop to breathe?_ The young Halliwell got really interested in the possibility of staying in Hogwarts, for a while at least, but didn't have any idea about how to solve that new problem. His daydream was interrupted by a Lily who, apparently, hadn't stopped talking yet.

"When did you write the letter?"

Chris concentrated on the last question because he didn't remember the first one. "As soon as I got here… an hour earlier than you, I guess."

"So, we still get a chance then. Neither you nor I are emergency cases. Filch will not send the owls until tomorrow morning."

"How do you know all of that?"

"James, he keeps Mom from knowing he got in trouble," Lily explained and focused on the plan. "All the letters are kept in a nook at the end of the hall… We just need to go there and replace it."

"But we're not supposed to leave the infirmary. We could get in trouble, couldn't we?" Chris remembered being instructed about walking around school after hours.

"It doesn't matter," Lily just waved her hand dismissing his claim "I can't sit here and let them take you away before you start." She pointed to the material on Chris's bedside table. "Write a new letter to your mom."

"What do I write?"

"I don't know. That you loved the school, people are amazing… Be convincing. Do it. "

Chris took the parchment and the feather and started writing. He wasn't even sure about _why_ he wanted to stay there, but Lily didn't give him time to thing about the idea. He just felt, for an unexplainable reason, the right thing to do and started writing a new letter.

"Here it is." He handed the red-haired the piece of parchment.

"Great!" Lily didn't take it and just jumped from her bed demanding. "Come on!"

Chris grabbed her arm and stopped the Potter halfway to the door. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because you're my friend now and that's what friends are for. Let's go."

Chris followed just amazed with how a foreigner simply took him under her care. At the beginning, he was really afraid of the legendary coldness of people in Britain, but, against all odds, he felt welcome in Hogwarts. Not that he stopped missing his family, but the loneliness and the fear he previously felt started gradually vanishing.

The two eleven-year-olds went out of the infirmary and walked silently, one foot after another. At the end of the very long hall was a nook full of letters. Madame Pomfrey wrote to more people than they originally thought and it could be really difficult to find the one letter they were looking for.

Lily pointed her wand to the pile murmuring insecurely "Accio Chris's letter?" and an envelope came to her hand. "Rá!"

Chris laughed and quickly orbed the letter he had just written with the others.

"Uow!" Lily whispered staring at the point where the swirl of blue orbs had faded. "What was that?"

"I just orbed it. It's a white-lighter power." Chris explained in a low voice.

"Wait, are you a white lighter? Are you dead too?" Her brown eyes were almost jumping out.

"No. But we shouldn't be here, remember? I'll explain later."

Lily nodded still looking shocked and they headed back to the infirmary as carefully as they came out.

Then, when the two students were almost back at their salvation door, a shrilly voice screamed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE INFIRMARY CORRIDOR!"

"Peeves!" Lily spoke through her teeth burning the old letter with a flip of her wand.

That was the last thing the young students managed to do before an half angry, half resigned Madam Pomfrey showed up. The nurse sighed and said to herself "This is going to be a very long year," and to the new students, "I see you two feel good enough to face a detention, right?"

The memory faded.

* * *

Back at the attic, the Charmed Ones were adjusting their bodies to the feeling of getting out of a pensive.

"Is it that uncomfortable on purpose or by accident?" A dizzy Paige complained.

"Oooooown! You two were so cute!" Phoebe interrupted Paige's whimper almost screaming at the young Potter. And Chris… he was even cutter than you."

"Jeez, thanks." Lily was seriously afraid that the middle sister would consider grabbing her cheeks.

By the Charmed Ones' reaction, Lily thought she had chosen the best memory for her purpose. Chris really was irresistibly adorable child and if she wanted to make the sister's trust, and possibly like Chris, nothing could trump those big green eyes.

Paige and Phoebe were commenting on their _ability _to get in trouble at the first day of school and Lily was still enjoying her achievement when the light atmosphere was broken by Hugo who had noticed a tense frown on Piper's forehead. "What is it, Piper?"

The women in the room finally realized the eldest sister seemed uneasy and stopped talking.

"I don't know. It's just… I can't forget Chris tearful eyes talking about his mom." Piper felt she was on the verge of calling her white-lighter there and comforting him, which wouldn't make any sense since that scene had happened a decade ago.

The foreigner's hearts skipped a beat.

Phoebe empathically caught a glimpse of the Piper's feelings. Her older sister was really troubled. She knew they hadn't treated the adult Chris very well, but they didn't have to feel guilty.

The white lighter wasn't that little kid anymore. He was a full, unemotional grown up who could deal with _a little_ mistrust and some harsh words. With that in mind, Phoebe tried to console Piper. "Oh, it's your motherly instincts, Piper. We've never pictured Chris as child before. And you're such a mother hen, you know?"

In another situation, Piper would promptly agree to her sister about her mothering habit towards any child or anything that moved. The only problem was she had seen those hurt eyes before: on the moment she threw Chris out and somehow the connection between those two looks was what bothered her. She didn't want to worry her sisters and the strangers. She was probably overreacting out of guilt, so she decided to go along with Phoebe's theory.

"I know. It's just he was so sad, so vulnerable."

"Chris wasn't always a smart ass, you know? He _evolved_ to that." Lily put.

"And I'm quite sure being next to you played a huge part on that," Paige mockingly accused.

Lily gave the sister a twisted smile and decided to end the subject, quickly searching her mind for a new memory – any memory – to take Piper out of her worrying about Chris look before she recognized something familiar about those green eyes… Leo's eyes.

A pair of memories was placed at the pensive: "So, can we go on?" Lily pointed the magical object.

_

* * *

Lily's memory 2015 (Hogwarts 1__st__ year)_

A military teacher barked between the two rows of students. "Ravenclaw, Gryffyindor, ready for your first flying lesson?

Chris had his eyes glued on the red haired girl right opposite to him. His mother had shipped him a great broom – according to his housemates – but he was still tense about what would happen to it or to him on it. Lily's tried to mutely assure it would be fine as the teacher explained what should be done.

As soon as the instructions finished, a choir of "Up!" shouts was heard. Lily and Hugo who had been flying since they were four years old simply waved and got the brooms in their hands. Soon, half of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were bluntly flying around and most of the students were having a great time.

But not Chris.

After a long time, the young white lighter was still trying to make his broom work. "UP! Please?" Begging an inanimate object was his last resource since he had already tried everything else, but it didn't work either and the class ended before Chris could have any long shot at succeeding.

As they were leaving, Lily tried to comfort her friend. "Most of us can't do it at first. But it's not difficult – if you concentrate and the broom obeys."

"Great! A cleaning tool has a stronger will than I do. That should work wonders on my self esteem." Chris whined. "But it doesn't matter – it's not like anyone in my family is expected to fly around anyway," he tried to minimize his frustration.

The memory ended in a mist and changed.

"Welcome to the Hogwarts first game of the year: Syltherin vs. Gryffindor!" A cheerful speaker shouted.

In the bleachers, Chris was taking a seat next to Lily, Hugo and a big crowd of red and yellow. The young Halliwell was truly excited with all the fuzziness and his eyes were moving everywhere trying hard to not miss a single detail of what was happening.

The speakers voice echoed again "Slytherin comes with: Goyle, Smith, Smith, Montague, Derrick, Bole, Malfoy" and a bunch of brooms showed elegantly flying to the middle of the field.

Chris was amazed by the players moving around gracefully. His chin just fell and he was about to clap, when a slap on the back of his read woke him up.

"Wrong team, orbing boy!" Lily reprimanded. "Today, you support Gryffindor as if your life depended on it, clear?"

Chris just nodded as the speaker announced "Gryffindor team is: Weasley, Wesley, Bell, Simpson, Wood, Jack and Potter"

"Now you cheer!" Lily instructed already screaming in support to her house fellows who were getting in their positions.

Chris green eyes kept glued to the field. Leo was a huge sports fan and he had learned all about baseball and football in an unconscious attempt to bond to his father: going to stadiums was one of the things he and Leo used to do without Wyatt. And although he was born in a magical home and had seem the most fantastic things through out his childhood, he had never seen a more perfect link between his two passions – magic and sport – as Quidditch.

Somewhere along the game, Lily stopped paying attention to it. They were getting pretty beaten up by the Slytherin and it wasn't so fun for her anymore. Instead she started watching Chris's reactions and mentally noted his delighted face.

* * *

"Chris!" Lily called in the middle of an empty hallway.

The young white lighter stopped and turned to his friend who went straight to the point. "Did you find out what flying is for? Would you like to learn?"

"Yes, I do… and we have classes for that." He was trying to figure out what that dialogue was about.

Lily sighed annoyed. "Would you like to learn _faster_?"

"What do you have in mind, Lil?" Chris asked suspiciously.

"We can go to the field after classes and practice."

Chris was really interested in the practicing part, but there were some pretty strict rules about being outside after hours and Chris didn't want to get in trouble _again._ His mother would probably kill him for that. _"Although"_ he thought _"Orbing isn't controlled in Hogwarts…No, bad plan… but maybe…" _

Lily didn't give him time to balance if the outcome would worth. "Would you like to learn it or not?"

"Yes." He finally agreed ignoring the part of his mind which was screaming that things wouldn't work out fine. _

* * *

"See you in detention tomorrow." Chris was delivering Lily at the Gryffindor communal house's door.

The figure in the painting asked. "Password?"

Lily completely ignored the demand and answered to the white lighter. "I was starting to think we could get away with that, you know?"

The idea had worked for almost perfectly for a week and they managed to go out unharmed three unofficial lessons. But hadn't been so lucky on the forth try since a teacher had caught them at the exact moment they orbed back.

"I guess flying lessons are over then." Chris concluded "Thanks anyway, Lil"

"Over?" Lily hadn't considered the idea. "For one little detention? No!"

The fat lady intervened almost screaming "Password! If you're not getting in, I'll go back to my singing practice!"

"Please, don't. _Hungarian Horntail._" The painting got out of the way and Lily disappeared into the room as Chris went away.

* * *

At the end of that same year, Lily was proudly watching Chris elegantly landing on the middle an immense field. As he walked towards her, she said, "I can't believe it took me so long to think of the Room of Requirements."

"It would have avoided around what thirty-three detentions?" Chris recalled.

"Thirty-four, but it doesn't matter. You were my best pupil ever!" She stated.

"How many pupils did you have before me?" Chris raised an eyebrow.

Lily ignored it and continued. "Now, if you really want to try out for the team, I could ask James to teach you the game."

The memory finally faded

* * *

"That was your dumbest idea ever, you know? An oddly angry Hugo complained.

"I had worse." Lily tried to defend herself while mentally cursing herself. Why the hell did she chose this group of memories anyway? It was not like Chris was still flying around on brooms and he barely used his wand. The only thing she got from it was upsetting Hugo, her cousin just lost his eternal calm for two reasons: Quidditch and protecting girls in the family.

Hugo barked at her again. "Seven words for you: Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, _Ravenclaw, Ravenclaw, Ravenclaw!"_

Two of the Charmed Ones had decided not to get involved in whatever was making the usually peaceful wizard to snap, but Phoebe couldn't hold her curiosity for much longer and interrupted. "What are you talking about?"

"Those were Quidditch Cup winners for each one of our school year. My dear cousin here is just mad because he holds me particularly responsible for the Chris slaughtering Gryffindor for four of the seven years." Lily answered to the sister.

"The guy is a fucking sponge, Lil. Whatever you teach Chris, he learns and does better. You know that."

That was one of the most admirable qualities in the white-lighter. Although Chris never gave himself credit for it, he was a tremendously good pupil. He never relied on his power or in any particular talent, he just worked hard in everything he tried and often enough succeeded.

Lily explained herself. "I didn't know him that well back then. And I was eleven, for Merlin's sake!"

"You still got the forth year, didn't you?" Phoebe, the only sister who actually was paying attention to the conversation, tried to easy.

"Just because Chris didn't play our fourth year." Hugo spilled without thinking.

And in the moment the Weasley finished that sentence, Phoebe empathy kicked in. She could feel Lily darkening inside. Whatever had happened on that year must have been horrible since the Potter's feelings usually weren't as blue as those. She questioned the foreigners cut sharp. "Why not? What happened?"

Lily knew she would walk on dangerous territory there, but by the seriousness of Phoebe's question, she decided to go with the truth, knowing the empathy had sensed her crystal clear there and would read her like a book if she tried to lie. "He lost his mother. She was killed on a demon attack on his fourteen birthday."

"Oh." Piper let a cry slip.

Hugo had pulled his calm self back together and just hoped the sisters' didn't connect the dots. After all, they'd already told them Wyatt's mom died when he was sixteen and if they started doing the math it would be to obvious. This time, his memories were put at the pensive.

"Come on, ladies. We'll cross the bridge when time comes. For now, there's something else you should check"

The sisters were starting to get annoyed by the fact the foreigners seemed to be beating around an invisible bush, but they reluctantly obeyed.

_

* * *

Hugo's memory – 2016 (Hogwarts 2__nd__ year)_

Chris, Hugo and Lily were walking down the corridor holding their schedules chatting cheerfully.

"Ravenclaw and Gryffindor will get History of Magic together this year," Hugo said excitedly. The Weasley was actually the first student since Hermione who enjoyed that period. And for that only he deserved a mentioning in the history books according to his friends.

Chris moaned and Lily shook her head. History of Magic was the most boring thing they had ever known.

Hugo was offended by their reaction. "History is important, you know?"

"Sure. Keeping up with my sleep is really important." Chris answered.

Lily just laughed at the effect the white lighter answer had at her cousin and changed the topic. "At least, we share potions too. I just love Prof. Neville."

Hugo intervened. "He won't teach potions any longer. Prof. Sprout is retiring and he's assuming Herbology."

And on that moment, they turned a hallway corner and a familiar annoying voice echoed. "Well, well, well – isn't the new golden trio." The blonde boy, a little older than they were, was sitting at a window flap with two of his friends standing besides him. He cockily stood up and walked towards the recently arrived group blocking their way.

Lily said. "Merlin, I knew I'd be supposed to hate you, but you make this mission so much easier."

"Oh, Potter, didn't your family teach you manners?" The older boy mocked and completed "Oh, wait, your family don't have manners."

"Get off my face, Malfoy!" Lily barked.

Scorpious, escorted by his friends, raised his wand towards the red-haired who promptly returned the move. Chris intervened, placing himself between the Slytherins and Lily.

"Leave her alone!" Chris warned in a cold calm voice.

Scorpious Malfoy measured the young white lighter from top to bottom and finally added "Sorry, but I don't talk to blood freaking hybrids."

"Good, 'cause I'm not planning on chatting." Chris gave Malfoy a dark look.

"Uuuuuuh! Are you threatening me, White-Thing?"

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Lily demanded.

"Or what?" The Slytherin defiantly answered.

"Or I swear that will be hole in the place there should be you!" Lily replied.

"Isn't she adorable?" He mocked making a move towards the red-haired.

Hugo didn't get if Lily hexed or Chris telekinetically shoved, but one second after the Slytherin extended his hand to touch the girl's face Malfoy's back hit the wall. Unfortunately for all of them, the Weasley didn't have time to understand what had happened as the voice of their new potion teacher echoed through the hallway. "I can't believe it!"

Despite of the fact that the teacher was particularly upset, Chris's face lightened up.

Before any of the students could say could say a word, the teacher started throwing order Slytherins who weren't lying on the floor "You two, stop playing freeze and take the big guy to the infirmary." The group of older students just obeyed.

Paige Matthews finally turned to her nephews and his friends. "And you three, don't you even consider getting away with that because we'll surely spend some quality time together in detention."

A choir of excuses filled the air.

"But later. For now come here and give me a hug."

The memory changed slightly before Chris moved and threw himself in his aunt's arms.

* * *

The trio was standing by a table which was supporting three caldrons. The students picked a handful of a green shiny powder from a recipient in the middle of the table, looked at each other expectantly, and threw it in their respective caldrons.

Two of them puffed.

"That's so unfair!" Lily complained looking at Chris's crystal clear potion "You learned how to do that years ago."

"Sorry, I didn't obliviate myself before class, Lil." Chris answered sarcastically.

"That would have been gentle." Lily provoked.

"Stop moaning, Lily" Hugo who had a pretty decent potion himself took place in the conversation "You can't mix water and sugar and make it sweet."

"I just don't get how I was the one stuck with Uncle Ron's talent to potions. That's so unfair."

Paige Matthews was walking around the class commenting each of the student's results. Since it wasn't a particularly difficult potion, most of the students from both houses managed to get acceptable results. The teacher finally moved to the last table.

Checking the first caldron on the table, Paige found a mood looking substance. The teacher decided to make her remark to the boys. "Let's just keep her as far way from the herbs cabinet as possible, huh?"

She turned to Hugo's and said. "Great job, here. We actually can use it. Put it in vials, will you?"

The teacher finally got to the last caldron. She looked at the potion and Chris stiffened anxiously waiting for the result. The potion seemed to be fine, but Chris always suspected his own results and he didn't want to fail his aunt's class.

But there wasn't a thing worry about as Paige stated after a brief silence. "Perfect." Chris didn't get the time embarrassed by the praise as his aunt completed. "Not that I would accept anything different from you given you had a wonderful previous potion teacher."

Paige blinked to her nephew. And the memory faded.

* * *

"I was a teacher in Harry Potter's school?" Paige almost screamed at the minute they got back to the attic.

"For a year, yes." Lily replied.

"And you were a great teacher. The best we ever had." Hugo truthfully added.

Paige blushed a little absolutely delighted! She didn't use to cry around, but she had a little inferiority complex by the fact that she had started in magic later than her sisters. She was absolutely self-proud with the idea that in the future she could be respected enough to teach a great magical school.

"Again, I really like this future of yours."

"We had pretty decent lives so far – Wyatt aside, of course. If we had gotten rid of the Twice-Blessed, I'd say it would be almost perfect."

Lily couldn't help using that uncaring tone about Wyatt. She obviously had met the nice kid version of the tyrant, the one who she still considered Chris brother, but after so many years, she preferred to think of him as just an enemy to be beaten. Every one of them had their own defenses for not breaking down by the destruction Wyatt had caused and Lily's was not get emotionally bound to the war. And that had worked perfectly for her so far.

With Twice-Blessed in mind, the Potter made a decision and told the eldest sister who was in lost in her own thoughts as she usually did every time her _evil _son was mentioned.

"Piper, it's about time you know a little of future Wyatt?"


	6. Strike one

_**Recap from last Chapter**_

_With Twice-Blessed in mind, the Potter made a decision and told the eldest sister who was in lost in her own thoughts as she usually did every time her evil son was mentioned._

_"Piper, it's about time you know a little of future Wyatt?"_

* * *

_Lily's memory -. June, 18__th__. 2018. (Summer Break Between 3__rd__ and 4__th__ year)_

It was late in the afternoon and the sun was lazily beginning to set in the Burrows. Two separate swirls of blue orbs formed on the gate and almost immediately resulted in two blonde figures that started walking towards the house. Coming from behind the building, a red haired girl appeared and intercepted the visitors.

"Hello, there. One minute and I'll get mom," Lily ran to the front door barely opening it completely before screaming "MOOOOOM, MOOOOOOM! Wyatt is here!"

Ginny appeared promptly giving her daughter an earful "Didn't I warn you about shouting around?" The youngest Potter just lowered her eyes and the mother turned to the adult standing at the doorstep: "Hi, Leo. Come on in!"

"Thanks, Ginny, but I really can't. I'm just dropping Wyatt off." An almost continuous jingle sound on his mind didn't let the elder forget he was on a hurry and he added "I have a meeting in… well, now!"

A little under the adults' conversation, an anxious Wyatt asked Lily "Where is Chris?"

Ginny was the one who answered to the teenager "I'm sorry, dear. He's not here now, but he should be back any moment, though." She took her eyes from the disappointed look on Wyatt's face and explained to Leo. "Harry took the boys to a new Quidditch supply story at the diagonal alley."

"I'm really sorry I can't wait." Leo was upset with the idea of leaving. It was unbelievable how many times destiny conspired to avoid him meeting his younger son. But that meeting was inescapable since he had already planned to soon take a few days off from Elder duties. He concentrated on the delivery in hands. "If this young fellow creates _any_ trouble, just call us, ok?"

"Don't worry, Leo. We're used to deal with a bunch of magical little brats around here. We can handle this one more for a week." Ginny tranquilized Wyatt's father.

Turning to the blonde boy, Leo used the father tone. "Behave yourself, son!" and kissed his forehead before adding "And tell Chris I have planned a very fun couple of weeks for us in San Francisco, ok?"

"Yes, _dad._" Wyatt stressed his last word to make sure his father realized he was old enough to be embarrassed by all the kissing and advising in public.

Leo rolled his eyes and decided to ignore his oldest recently acquired teen behavior. He told Ginny. "I really have to go. It was nice to see you again. Send Potter my best regards."

"I will. And tell Piper I'm still expecting her for lunch any day." Ginny stated.

Leo nodded in reply and the adults finished their goodbyes right before the elder disappeared in a shower of blue orbs. As soon as the shine disappeared, Ginny instructed, "Lily, help Wyatt to put his things in the bedroom. I'll be in the kitchen." Lily silently agreed and her mother left.

As soon as her mother was out, Lily moved her want towards Wyatt's luggage and broke the silence fully pronouncing "_Wingardium Leviosa__" _and the Twice Blessed's objects levitated.

"That's so cool." Wyatt said.

"I know." Lily replied cockily and the two kids walked up the stairs followed by the flying bags.

* * *

When Wyatt and Lily finally got back to a messy kitchen they found it empty. Glimpsing by the window, she saw her mother and her cousin Molly were already setting the table for a late tea outside. At this moment, a crowd of people showed up around a swirling port key in the next room. One second after the arrival, there were screaming and laughing around bags and packages and Wyatt stated to himself really impressed by the fussiness in the living room. "And I thought I had a big family!"

"Get a problem with that, blessed boy?" Lily answered leaning against the sink.

Wyatt didn't answer as his eyes caught the Ravenclaw Whitelighter among the others. He shouted. "Chris!"

"Wy!" The youngest Halliwell immediately turned and run to his brother.

"Come on and give me a hug, little brat!"

Chris promptly obeyed his brother demand saying "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, _peanut_!" The eldest Halliwell provoked with a smile.

Chris left his brother's arms and twisted his nose at the tease warning "I've learned a curse called _furunculus_:think of that"

Wyatt laughed at the threat and sat at the bench by the table.

"How long are you here? Chris asked.

"A while." The twice-blessed simply avoided mentioning the fact that Chris had just missed a chance of seeing their father by minutes because, although Chris refused to admit it, everyone knew his baby brother lingered for Leo's attention. Wyatt didn't want to upset him.

If Chris thought of his father, he didn't let it show. But the dark-haired noticed there was an enormous cake sitting on the table expecting to be taken outside. Turning his eyes continuously from his brother to his friend, he pleaded. "Please, don't tell me any of you made it."

"That's offensive. I can bake a cake if I want to." Chris's older brother answered.

"Yeah, right," Chris mocked "Cooking is definitely not included in your blessings, Wy."

"See, Wyatt, that's the kind of mistrust I have to put up with in school!" Lily tried to sound offended.

The jaded eyes narrowed a little and Chris self-defended "It's not my fault you two would burn water it that was possible."

"Relax, Chris! Mom and Molly did it. We're just stuck with the cleaning." Lily took her wand and murmured a few housekeeping spells her grandmother had taught her and the dishes and bowls started being washed by magically enchanted sponges.

Wyatt was truly admired. "Now I see why wand magic is for! Where can I get one?"

"_Washing the dishes? _That is the reason you finally ask for a wand?" The younger Halliwell sighed adding "You're unbelievable."

"You're just saying that because you never had to clean Piper Halliwell's kitchen. She wants it spotless, dude! And her spotless really doesn't have any spots."

Chris was the one child who had inherited his mother's cooking abilities and he used to spend a really long time with her in this activity back home. Wyatt's food, on the other hand, would probably be considered one of his most powerful weapons as it could kill a grown up at the first bite. It was safer to keep the eldest Halliwell away from the kitchen 'til all the food was prepared and consumed. But all of Piper's children had to help with the house duties and the dishes were usually the eldest's responsibility.

The twice-blessed was still watching Lily moving her wand around murmuring what he thought were random words amazed by the fact that everything was getting in place for itself. Slowly, a frown began to show in the blonde teen's forehead: "Doesn't this stand for personal gain?"

Lily sighed disdaining and explained. "I really think this personal gain stuff of yours has something to do with the elders keeping your magic low. In my opinion, they are the ones who punish you and make the spells backfire!"

Wyatt's face gloomed. "Elders' fault, huh? Interesting theory! I am pretty sure my mom would like that."

"And I'm pretty sure she would kill you if you ever tried to use magic to do the cleaning!" Chris cut the idea which was starting to form in his brother's head.

Ginny called the kids and the memory changed.

* * *

On the next day, Potters, Weasleys and the two Halliwells were enjoying a huge family picnic. Some of them were playing Quidditch on an improvised field. As the game finished, Chris landed near his brother immediately followed by a whipping Lily. "There's going to be a rematch, Ravenclaw!"

Chris twisted his nose to her and turned to his brother pointing the broom. "So, would you like to give a try?"

"No, thanks, I'm still stuck with the broom-for-sweeping stuff." The twice blessed didn't like to admit, but the one thing he was afraid of was heights. He could vividly remember the few times his father took him to the Golden Gate Bridge and those still gave him nightmares.

By then, Wyatt had already come to the conclusion that he was indeed one of the most powerful beings on planet _if, _and only _if, _his two feet were settled on the solid ground. He proudly praised the youngest Halliwell. "You're pretty good at it, Chris!"

Chris just lowered his eyes blushing slightly and Lily intervened. "Too good, if you ask me."

"Why would you say that?" The eldest curiously asked.

Waving her head towards Chris she explained. "Because this little bastard here just took the cup from Gryffindor's hand this year! I am convinced he orbed the snitch, although there is no proof of that!"

"I didn't cheat, Lil!" Chris quickly defended himself truthfully.

"I know, I know." The Potter agreed and completed with a defeated smile "But what kind of sister would I be if I didn't at least try to find an excuse for my oldest brother?"

Wyatt interrupted questioning to his brother "Your team won the cup, Chris? Why didn't you tell us?"

Chris didn't used to tell his family about his school achievements because he seriously considered nobody around the manor would care to listen about it. Every time he tried to tell his father about Quidditch or anything, the conversation was interrupted by an important elder thing and Chris had just given up. He answered his brother's question. "It wasn't important. It's just a school silly game."

"It's not unimportant, Chris – it's huge. And I am really proud of you!" Wyatt was astonished by how often his little brother undermined his own accomplishments, but recognized his brother's embarrassment and decided to give him a break turning to the red-haired girl. "And as I am a devoted Ravenclaw supporter, I guess it's my right to pick on you for that!"

"Nope. I am not on the team." The Potter escaped giving her brother away. "Go bother James instead!"

_

* * *

Lily's memory - Later on, that same night. _

Chris and Wyatt were playing chess at the room they were sharing when a burst of flames formed in the middle of the bedroom causing the oldest Halliwell to jump preparing to attack. Chris just telekinetically shoved his brother back in bed.

As he recognized the figures in the middle of the room, the twice blessed warned, "Lily, you have to stop doing this or I'll end up accidently vanquishing you!"

"It's not nice to threaten your hosts, you know!" Lily replied.

"You're not supposed to be here, Lil!" Chris interrupted.

A fifteen-year-old Rose threw herself in the bed right beside where Wyatt was sitting demonstrating they had no intention of leaving. She answered Chris. "And since when has 'not supposed to' stopped anyone in this family?"

Wyatt just laughed at his brother's friend tendency to contravene. "I'm starting to believe those detentions weren't your fault, Chris"

"They weren't." Chris reassured.

"So, what are we doing?" Lily asked.

"I was oddly getting my ass kicked in chess." Wyatt had taught the board game to the boy when they were younger and used to let Chris win every once and a while just to make his brother happy. But that night was the first time Wyatt could remember actually losing a match for real.

"I've been practicing a little," Chris explained, remembering that he always could recognize when Wyatt suddenly started to choose stupid plays on purpose. But on that night it wasn't the case – he had truly defeated his older brother at the game using a couple of strategies and moves he recently learned.

"With Uncle Ron," Lily added as if this simple statement explained everything, but as Wyatt didn't seem to get the meaning of so she completed, "who happens to be one of the best chess players ever."

Looking back at the board and realizing he was about to lose the third round, Wyatt spoke. "I seriously have to have a word with this Ron guy."

"Hey!" Rose interrupted. "That's my father you're talking about."

"Ooops!" Wyatt used his charming guilt as charged look and everyone laughed at his minor gaffe.

The kids spent a really quality time playing Explosive snap and just chatting for a long time. At the end of the night, Wyatt got really trapped into Molly's conversation and didn't realize Lily and Chris had fallen to sleep. The older and awake red-haired moved towards her cousin.

"I'm waking her up. I think is way past time we take the children to bed." Rose stated not realizing Lily hadn't fully slept yet and could still listen to them. But the youngest didn't have forces to re-open her eyes.

"Don't. I'll orb you two there." As Wyatt moved to take Lily, his eyes got lost watching his younger brother sound asleep beside her.

Rose interrupted Wyatt's thoughts. "You really miss him, don't you?"

Wyatt nodded adding, "More than you can imagine. He's more than... Chris is more than I could have ever hoped for, you know?"

Wyatt sat between the two kids and put a gentle pushing a lock of dark hair from Chris's closed eyes before he finally grabbed the Potter's arm and prepared to orb.

Lily finally lost her struggle to sleep and the memory faded away.

* * *

Next morning, the sun was shining brightly and Chris, Hugo, Lily and Wyatt were wandering in the field around the Burrows trying to find something funny to do.

Lily finally came up with a proposal. "We can go to the lake."

Although Hugo's face also showed a wrinkle of suspicion to the plan, Chris was the one and only to disagree out loud. "No, Lil – we can't. The lake is beyond protection spells, remember?"

"Oh, it's not like there's anything happening around here for years! We'll be safe!" The Potter stubbornly defended her plan.

Wyatt backed her up. "And I am here, Chris. There are advantages of having the Twice -Blessed around. I'll protect you."

"It's not that, Wy. We're just not supposed to be there. We were instructed…"

"And I think they will not be expecting you to obey, will they?"

Chris snorted knowing that Lily's recklessness and his brother's over-confidence together could be a dangerous combination. But the young White-lighter didn't have a point to convince them otherwise and they went.

* * *

The lake was indeed a beautiful scenario and the four teens were having a perfect morning watching some weird magical animals which showed up curious with the unusual movement around that part of the property. Being brought up in a muggle zone, Wyatt and Chris didn't know most of them Hugo was just telling them some very interesting things about magical creatures.

Everything was perfect, until swirls of dark orbs showers formed accompanied by a thick black mist. The Darklighters and a wizard on a black robe attacked even before any of them could react. An arrow went straight for Wyatt, Chris screamed. "Wy, watch out!"

Chris shoved the first arrow away and eldest threw an electric ball vanquishing the attacker. But a second arrow was already cutting through the air almost getting to Wyatt's back when the youngest Halliwell threw himself in its way without a second guess.

"Chris!" The vision of his little brother falling distracted the twice blessed long enough for the Death Eater to get clear shot at the Twice-Blessed. "Stupefy!"

"Expelliarmus!" Hugo's spell was a second too late and Wyatt heavily hit the ground.

The second Darklighter didn't have time for another strike as Lily casted, "Expulso!" throwing the dark wizard far away on his back.

Hurt and unarmed, both the surviving attackers disappeared.

Lily ran to Chris who was lying half awake on the grass and demanded to her cousin. "Wake Wyatt up!"

"Rennervate" Hugo shouted pointing his wand to the unconscious figure.

Wyatt immediately gasped for air already asking "Chris!"

"Over there!" Hugo waved his head toward the point where the other Halliwell was.

Standing up, the blonde boy instructed "Take the arrow out quickly. I can't touch it!"

Lily placed her hands on the dark weapon, closed her eyes and pulled it at once from a barely-conscious Chris. The arrow was meant for Wyatt and Dark-lighters had improved the poison in order to get the Twice-Blessed. It was acting faster than Wyatt could ever remember and he ably moved his hands over Chris's wound. After a brief seconds, it started to heal and Chris finally came back.

Before the youngest could say a word his older brother ranted at him in a mix of angry and concern. "What the hell did you do that for? That arrow was headed for me, Chris!"

"I knew you could heal me Wy." Chris's words were weak.

"What if they weren't here Chris, what if I was stupape… knocked out?" The younger Halliwell didn't answer and the oldest continued. "Never, ever, try playing the hero again, alright?" Wyatt hugged his brother, not allowing the dark-haired to breathe, let alone discuss.

"I think you know Chris better than that, Wy."

The memory faded right after Wyatt glared back at the Potter strengthening he wouldn't take any support to his brother behavior.

The last memory faded.

_

* * *

Back in the attic, 2004. _

"Darklighters were after my son all the way to England?" Piper was completely shocked by the idea her baby would have to put up with attacks by himself since his teen ages. She and her sisters were constantly under threat, but they at least had a chance to live normal lives until they were adults.

"According to him, those attacks happened on weekly basis," Lily explained.

"Weekly?" Piper was desperate by the sudden realization that she couldn't prevent her own child from constantly in danger by himself. She had lived under the wrong impression she would be always there for him until… well, until she was there at least.

Lily tried to tranquilize the Halliwell mother in her usual way. "But since Wyatt is currently too alive and well, you see he could handle the threats."

"I don't care if he could handle it. He was just a child, for God's sake!" Piper shouted and said still outraged. "I'll not allow this to happen this time."

"You know you can't do that, Piper," Phoebe tried to reason. She didn't like the idea of her nephew being pursued any more than her eldest sister, but Wyatt was the second generation of Charmed Ones and fighting for life was part of their destinies.

"Of course I can. I'm his mother. I can tight for him to bed 'til he's eighteen" Piper stated stubbornly although she knew it wasn't a viable plan.

"That will make his social life easy." Paige commented.

With a sigh of resignation, Piper threw herself at the couch realizing for the first time Wyatt would eventually grow up and she wouldn't be able to follow him around 24/7. It was absurd she never thought of that before; but the young mother was used to having her baby under her constant attention almost every minute of the day. She finally whispered once more. "It's not right. He was just a child."

"An overly powerful child, Piper"

Changing the subject a little, Phoebe frowned and said "There was also a wizard… one of yours. Wasn't that odd?"

"Wyatt was prophesized as the most powerful being from good." Hugo explained.

"And that was a hell of target painted on his back." Lily completed. "Every demon, dark wizard and evil creature on the planet had a plan to get rid of him before he got full control of his powers"

Hugo intervened before Piper could freak out again. "And from that comes the theory he was turned evil on purpose… that there might have been a plan to keep him from fighting at the right side."

"He wasn't evil in those memories." Phoebe started to understand why Chris would go through so much to save what appeared to be his closest friend. Watching the memory, she could feel – not by empathy, but by experience – those two really loved each other. "Did you see the way he looked at Chris? Wyatt cared so much for him."

_Wyatt still cares for Chris in his own twisted way, _Lily thought, but didn't say.

Paige said. "Yep, those two really have a strong connection." _Oh, gosh, my nephew might be gay!_ Paige concluded in her mind. Not that it would be a problem, but it would be interesting turn of events. _Oh, no, wait – Chris had a fiancée. Confusing!_ The youngest Charmed One got lost in her own thoughts and theories.

"Can we go on?" Piper was finally back in the conversation. "I still can protect my baby now. I have a child to save!" _And a mess to understand!_ Although she had already been convinced of the dark future ahead, Wyatt's mother was having a really hard time to make any sense of the possibility of that nice teenager becoming the source of all evil.

Hugo took a stream from his head and put at the pensive. Lily threw him a vial containing memories they brought her cousin placed it together without discussion immediately murmuring a spell to chronologically adjust them. The sisters dived in.

_

* * *

Hugo's memory – 2018, Early November._

Hugo Weasley was reading a huge book on an empty part of the library when Chris showed up and took the seat in front of him.

"Sorry!" The Whitelighter opened up.

"For what?" Hugo seemed confused as he didn't remember any reason at all for Chris sudden apology.

"You know, for the contest thing." Chris explained embarrassed.

Hugo finally got what his friend was talking about, but didn't see any sense in his friend feeling guilty. He had got over it days ago and there was no reason for Chris to blame himself in the first place.

"That was a potion competition, Chris. One of us had to lose." Hugo tried to reason with the Halliwell.

"But I just I didn't enjoy beating you at the finals."

"I beat you last year, didn't I?" Hugo put and decided to enlighten the atmosphere. "And at least we are succeeding in keep these points away from Slytherin!"

Chris smiled faintly and said. "Logan would be thrilled to hear that."

Logan was an odd addition to their group of friends. Chris was the first one to become closer to the Slytherin student since the houses rivalry wasn't as important for him as for the Gryffindors. And although Logan's dark eyes and dark hair combined to his tendency to keep in silence most of the time used to scare most people away, he was a rare Slytherin with his heart in the right place and managed to charm the Potter and the Weasley.

Still trapped at the contest part, Hugo asked. "What was the secret prize this year?"

"Professor Neville let me choose."

Neville had assumed the post of Hogwarts headmaster on that year as Prof. McGonagall retired.

"And what did you ask for?"

"To spend my birthday at home this year!" Chris smiled.

_

* * *

Harry Potter's memories – November, 16__th__ 2018. _

As night started to fell, Harry was sitting in his desk at the Department of Aurors examining some documents from latest arrests. Ron, sitting right in front of him, was playing with a ball.

Ron moaned. "Harry, it's past eight o'clock. Can't we go?"

"I'm staying till midnight, I've told you!" Harry replied.

"And I told you hiring a seer for the department was a very bad idea, anyway."

"I do believe in prophecies and premonitions. And after all we went through, so should you."

"Whatever happens today can wait until tomorrow, don't you think?"

"No, the seer specifically warned us that the magical community would be stroked on November, 16th and good would lose a powerful ally. I'll not leave the ministry until the day is officially over. You can go home if you want."

"And did I ever leave you, Harry?" Ron sighed. He would never bail out and leave his best friend behind, even if it didn't consider important. Unfortunately, that meant losing the Cannon's match he intended to watch again. "Can we at least play chess or something?"

Harry dropped the documents he was reading and conjured a board on the table. Since they started working as aurors, Ron, who really enjoyed staying at home with his wife and kids, was doing so many extra hours just to keep him company, Harry felt he owed his friend a distraction.

The clock slowly tic tocked the minutes down until both of the pointers were headed up. And not a single cry for help came from all across Great Britain. Not a note, owl, call from the fireplace – nothing, zip, nada. The night had been actually one of the calmest nights on the history of the Department. As the last bang of the clock was heard Ron immediately stood up.

"I told the seer was over dramatic! But do you ever listen? _NO!"_ Ron stressed the answer to his own question.

Harry sighed. He had to agree with Ron on that one. The day was over and nothing, important or not, happened at all. But somehow, the Potter still got an uneasy feeling inside. He nodded slightly and told to his best friend. "Let's go, home."

Both of the aurors took their jackets and prepared to dis-apparate. Harry turned his wand up and dimmed the lights of the office. And that was when their attention got caught by a recently arrived owl hooting furiously against the window.

* * *

An hour later, that same night, Harry was pacing around his home office with a concerned frown in his forehead. Ron was up by the fireplace silently following Harry with the eyes. The red-haired auror were feeling as worried as the Potter.

The door rang and they jumped. As they were walking down the corridor, straight to the living room, they heard Ginny opening the door and immediately ordering anxiously. "Orb us upstairs!"

The aurors arrived and almost collided with a decided Hermione on the way to the kitchen. She completely ignored the two men and came back in a few seconds holding potions vials of all kinds. Without saying a thing, the brunet ran upstairs.

Harry and Ron sat down at the couch and waited. A few moments later, a swirl of blue orbs formed back into the living room and an elder – not looking half as peaceful as the elders used to – took a seat in an armchair in front of them asking. "Did you get our owl?"

Harry nodded and questioned the elder. "What happened exactly, Aragon?"

"A coordinated demon attack caught dozens of powerful witches all over the country. It was completely out of the blue. There were few fatalities, but the Whitelighters available are too tired to heal the injured completely. Most of them are in pretty bad shape."

"Any child?" Ron asked.

"Luckily, most of them were at school. Christopher was the only one at an attack site. He was found unconscious and clinched to his mother. For a moment, I was afraid we had lost him too, but he just passed out from exhaustion."

The years in the department had turned Harry Potter into a very objective man "What's your plan now?"

The elder explained. "Take all the underage witches out of the country until we find out what's behind this, the powerful ones at least. Madam Abbé agreed to reinforce the school to protect the girls and they are already in Beauxbatons. The boys will be taken to Durmstrang tonight."

"None to Hogwarts?" Ron questioned.

"There's already a fair share of Americans in the school. It wouldn't be safe to concentrate them at one spot"

"What about the Twice-Blessed?" Harry asked.

"Leo took him to a meditation exercise on another plane. He's safe for now. They wouldn't be reachable for another three days, but Gideon is trying to get them back earlier."

The elders and the wizards at the Ministry had been in contact for many centuries and worked together in past occasions when the world was in danger, but that hadn't been the case in many decades and the two communities preferred not to get involved in each other's issues unless it was absolutely necessary. But Aragon was looking too tired on that night and the burden on his shoulders was heavier them he could carry. He officially mouthed the request he had come to make in first place. "I have personal favor to ask, Harry. We have to concentrate on Wyatt… and Christopher, we can't deal…"

The elder was too embarrassed to finish saying they were about to turn them back on the Charmed Ones' children, especially on Chris, who was also an elder's son. But they didn't have a choice and Gideon made sure the whole council understood the importance of focusing on all their efforts towards the Twice-Blessed.

Harry realized the Aragon's discomfort and said. "Don't worry. We'll take care of the boy."

Aragon didn't look up "Thank you, Potter."

The memory faded.

_

* * *

Back on the attic_, 2004

The uncomfortable silence in the room was broken by Piper. "Chris was not the only one who lost his mother that day, was he?"

"No, he wasn't." A tense Hugo replied.

_

* * *

A/N: The Slytherin student will be necessary for some of the scenes ahead. Don't worry – the character doesn't speak more than one or two lines every now and then and just happens to be somewhere else I need someone to be at this somewhere else. __Got it?_

_Special Thanks to my beta-reader__ Piper Chris Melinda Halliwell for her cooperation!  
_

_Thanks for the read and reviews!_


	7. Blame

_**Author's Note:**__ I should warn you that "my Chris" respects the eldest for two reasons. First: life's just starting to beat him up.. Second: he was raised by Piper, wasn't he? That means he is a well-educated kid because she was a good mother after all. He would never be unnecessarily rude or anything but respectful to an authority figure, at least not yet… _

_Question: __Are the chapters too long? I can shorten them, but then the fic would get like 100 chapters…What do you think?_

* * *

Recap

_Back on the attic, 2004._

_The uncomfortable silence in the room was broken by Piper. "Chris was not the only one who lost his mother that day, was he? _

"_No, he wasn't" A tense Hugo replied… _

…

**

* * *

Chapter 7: Blame**

Hugo explained "You died in one of the attacks and losing the Charmed Ones was the worst blow to your magical community that night, but not the only. Your sisters survived, but they were also struck and Wyatt..."

_Wyatt! _Piper recalled he was up there in the night of the attacks and that was a relief in a way. She wasn't afraid of dying for herself. Since they lost Prue, death had become a known real risk of their duties and she accepted it. But how could she deal with the fact she left her own child alone?

"Was Leo there for Wyatt, at least?" Piper asked.

"Leo was there _for Wyatt_, yes." There was a bitter pinch in Lily's voice, but the sisters didn't get it.

Slightly irritated, the Potter put the next memories from vials at the pensive. No matter how much effort she made to create a bond between the sisters and Chris, it always came back to Wyatt… _"Why are you so surprised, Potter?" _she mentally questioned_, "Hadn't it always been like this?"_ It was not a valid argument when it came to Piper and she knew her mind was being unfair, but for Leo… Lily wasn't in the mood of chatting about the elder, so she decided to induce the sisters to move on before Chris got back or before she spilled the whole thing out because she couldn't stand how blind the Charmed Ones were for much longer. "You're not halfway to the hard part: hold the dwelling in pain for later – You'll need it. Can we go on?" Lily almost barked.

Hugo widened his eyes. That was not her usual untactful, she was just mean there. Leo, he concluded, strangely agreeing, Lily had the right to get angry at the mention of the elder.

The Charmed Ones were trapped in their own problems. Piper was dealing with her own death and the pain Wyatt would have to endure without her around, Paige was trying to adjust to the idea of losing the eldest and Phoebe was completely overwhelmed by the confusion of feelings in the room – a mix of sadness, shock, disapproval, insecure, doubts, fear and rage – she simply couldn't pinpoint where each of them was coming from.

The fact was none of the Charmed Ones cared about Lily's coldness or whatever because they could start seeing dark clouds in the horizon and all of them dived into the next memory without a second thought.

_Harry's memory – November, 2018. _

A few days after the big event, Harry had come home from another day of work and met his wife waiting for him finishing to place the table for dinner. After regular greetings, the Potter took and envelope from his pocked placed by a ready tray sitting on the counter.

Ginny catch his movement with the corner of her eyes. "What is it, Harry?"

"It's for Christopher. His father came to the Ministry today and…"

"You mean to our Ministry? I cannot believe he was here and didn't come to check on his own son. What's the problem with this guy!"

The Potters might have had a friendly relationship to Leo and the Charmed Ones in the past years, but Leo's late course of action was completely out of line in Ginny's opinion. After being notified of his wife's death, the only thing she would considered proper was he came to at least visit his younger son. But a week later, the elder was still trapped somewhere between his own pain and his eldest son rage bursts.

Harry tried to smooth over the Weasley lashing out, "Give him a break, Ginny. He's obviously devastated."

"A break? You can't be serious!"

"Their community can't be left unwatched," Harry tried to explain the inexplicable "They are down too many witches and without the Charmed Ones, the danger is imminent."

"And yet there was time to come and see you," Ginny replied sardonically and snapped "Why are you defending him anyway?"

Although Harry Potter – who was now the head of the Auror's Department – understood the difficulties of keeping a magical community safe, he also didn't approve of Leo's attitude towards Chris. _"What kind of father could leave a son alone in such a painful moment?"_ Harry's mind had questioned more than once during the earlier talk with Leo, but still back there at his office, Harry got the answer.

"He feels guilty. I guess he just can't face Chris, after all."

Harry was sure he wouldn't be able to face his own kids if he was at some degree responsible for the loss of their mother. He could perfectly remember the despair in Leo's eyes when he confessed that although, he was on a different plane by the time of the attack – he could faintly hear Chris begging for help. But as the training and meditation involved so many forms of mind games, the elder sincerely believed that was a kind of trick to distress him and Wyatt from accomplishing their mission up there. Unfortunately, Leo couldn't have been more wrong and there was nothing that could be done to undo it.

"He blames himself. They all do in someway."

Ginny didn't want to hear about Leo's guilt. The task in her hands was a teenage boy in grief. "I couldn't care less about if he blames himself. The fact that Chris was let down there doesn't justify letting him down again!"

"I know that, Ginny. But there is not much we can do about it now."

"Well," the wife handed Harry the tray, "I beg to disagree!"

The memory changed.

_

* * *

Harry's memory, few moments later._

A fourteen-year-old Chris was sitting by the window with an empty glaze. The young Whitelighter couldn't cry any more because he simply couldn't do anything at all. Chris didn't want to be there, didn't want to go back to school and certainly didn't want to go home and face his family… Chris didn't want the pain to go away – he deserved to suffer to keep in mind how much of a failure he was… how much he let everyone down. He had let his mother down in the worst possible away. _Why he was the one that had to be there?_ Wyatt, Leo, they would have never let his mom die the way he did. They would never have failed her.

Why did she have to end up depending on him – the useless half Whitelighter who couldn't heal a simple stab wound? Chris just wished he could vanish from the face of earth because nothing could make him feel better or whole again.

The Halliwell noticed Harry Potter entering the room, but didn't bother to move.

"If you're here to say the pain will fade, just don't!" Chris said

"I'm not, Christopher," Harry replied.

Chris finally turned his eyes to the man standing there. He didn't want to be rude with the family who was being so nice and taking him when nobody else wanted. "I just want to be alone, ok?"

Harry ignored his request and said, "I know for a fact it never stops hurting. You'll always miss her."

The truth of Harry words disarmed Chris and broke the impassiveness he was trying so hard to keep.

The young Halliwell suddenly broke into loud sobs mumbling. "She died because of me." Tears now ran freely through the boys face and he continued. "Mom got distracted 'cause I was there… She would've never get caught off guard if I wasn't there."

The traditional _it's not your fault_ lecture everyone had tried to cross Harry's mind. Instead, he approached the boy and said, "And that's a burden no one should carry… but, yet, some of us do."

Chris looked to Harry with his green eyes filled with a second round of tears and weakly saying, "I couldn't save her."

"I know, Chris. I know," Harry held the teenager's face and talked in a soft, but serious tone "This feeling won't disappear and that is unfair. But destinies are not always fair and some things happen regardless of our decisions or intentions. You only can choose how you will carry on."

"I don't want to carry on… If I could just…" The hole inside Chris was too big for him to fight.

The auror's heart was broken by Chris's pain and he was the one person who everybody expected to know the right thing to say in that situation. But he didn't, even he knew there was no right thing to say.

The memories of Dumbledore dictated his speech "You can't see it now, but there is a whole life ahead of you. And you're destiny to great things. Be good, stand for good and help. You can't stop fighting evil, no matter how much it takes from you in the battle. Just don't give up, Chris. Don't give up on your mother's beliefs and all she fought for. She wouldn't want you to."

The one thing Chris didn't want was to disappoint his mother again – even if she was just a memory... He had to pull himself together and embrace his Charmed One destiny; he had to become a man she would have been proud of. But the young Whitelighter had no idea about how to deal with the feelings inside. Out of despair, he broke into tears again.

Harry finally stepped forward and hugged Chris as hard as he could, as if his support could stop the boy from falling into his personal hell again.

Leaning against the Potter, Chris said between the sobs, "I just can handle it now."

"And no one expects you to." Harry simply kept the Halliwell in his arms, hoping it would bring Chris some comfort.

_

* * *

_

_Harry's memory, December 30__th__, 2018. _

"Come in." The auror answered to the knock on the door. "Hi, Christopher. Take a seat."

Chris stepped into the office and walked to the chair in front of Harry's desk. He sat down and said, "I think I'm ready to go back to school." Harry simply nodded in approval and Chris continued. "I lost two months of classes, but I think I can catch up if I work hard… I know I need a parent to allow me to go back."

"I'll send your father an owl so he can talk to Neville."

"If I depend on _dad _finding a time for a Chris-problem in his schedule, I won't go back to school 'til 2050," Chris answered harsher than he wanted: it wasn't Harry's fault anyway. He softened up his tone and pleaded with his green eyes full of hope, "Please, Mr. Potter, can't you do something?"

Harry wanted to disagree to Christopher about Leo's behavior, but he couldn't. It was getting difficult to reach Leo and the elders even on official matters of the Ministry. They were completely taken aback by a serious of mysterious killings in the underworld and had a crazy unidentified punisher on the loose.

"I think I can call Neville a favor."

"Thanks, Mr. Potter"

"Harry, _Chris_. Call me Harry."

_

* * *

Lily's memory, February, 2019._

The Chris that came back into Hogwarts was a slightly different person. Not that many of the students could notice it, but his closest friends realized he was had a detached attitude towards what happened in America. He didn't talk about his family any longer. He didn't talk about going home anymore. Somewhere, the _momma's boy _died along with his mother and that was just a wrong way to grow up.

To be fair, Chris wasn't really talking at all and Lily had a hard time even meeting him at school. She finally found him sitting on an empty Ravenclaw table reading an absurdly huge book that he carried around everywhere since he came back… alone – again. Chris had completely shut to himself and, as the Potter didn't approve this unhealthy behavior, she walked towards him and took a sit _on _the table. Despite of her abrupt arrival, Chris didn't react.

Lily decided to make the Halliwell give her some attention and fully pronounced the question, "Would you mind if I bother you?"

"Bother? Harsh word, Lil…" The pair of green eyes rose annoyed at her making sure the interruption wasn't welcome. Chris finished "…And yet so accurate."

Chris made it clear he didn't want to be disturbed, but the Lily was not ready to go away and asked to the figure whose eyes were already glued back at the yellow pages "What are you doing?"

"Reading," Chris stated the obvious.

"What?" Lily questioned.

"A book," Chris re-stated the obvious.

"Are we back to the 'rip every word out with a question and a forceps' part?" The Potter was unsafely about to snap.

Chris still didn't turn to face her. "Yep."

"Oh, give me that, Christopher!" She finally – for her standards – had had enough of his recently acquired habit of not sharing any information.

When she reached for the volume, Chris closed it and stared at her. For a second Lily thought she had won the battle. But the young Whitelighter simply stood up and orbed the book to his hand defiantly glaring at her before and turning to leave.

"_Relashio"_ Lily's voice echoed at his back.

The book fell down onto the floor, truly surprising Chris, and his cold attitude vanished. "Where the hell do you come up with those spells, Lil?

The Potter didn't answer and summoned the book to her hands. "_Accio book_."

One thing Chris had learned so far in Hogwarts – Potters could be so or more stubborn than Halliwells. He wouldn't escape Lily for long. The Whitelighter made his way back at her side, crossing his arms while waiting for the interrogation.

Lily checked the object in her hands as asked, "Advanced Demonology? We don't even have this subject in classes! Why are you reading it anyway?"

"Leisure." This time, Chris's one word answer was just an attempt to get his friend irritated as a pay back for her disturbance. She was kind of cute when mad… or he in a suicidal mood; yet to be decided.

"Come on, Chris. You are practically one with this book for the past few weeks. Why?" Lily demanded.

"That's a school, Lil. You know people usually find studying quite normal around this kind of facility"

Lily narrowed her eyes. "What. are. you. planning?"

"Nothing." Chris grinned finding it really fun to defy the young Potter.

"Tell me." Lily wouldn't give up.

"Nope." Chris went on provoking.

"Please?" Lily tried.

"No," Chris sentenced again.

"Fine, then," She dropped the book heavily back on the Ravenclaw table and moved away.

A few minutes later, the Gryffindor came back with her own book in hands. Chris was back to his reading, but carefully watched his friend with the corner of his eyes – her waiver didn't quite convince him. She sat right in front of him and prepared to start her study. Chris had glimpsed the book on her hands and thought _History of Magic in Greece? Voluntarily? What are __**you**__ up to, Potter?_ He decided to get prepared for whatever was in her mind.

Lily appeared deeply concentrated on her reading – or pretending to read. Under the table she was holding her wand in her sweaty palms. The Potter was trying really hard to concentrate on the spell since it wasn't a ride in the park to perform it nonverbally, but since Chris wasn't cooperating, so… _Legilimency._

Chris got her attempt in at the spot and pushed her out without a breaking a sweat. "Out of my mind, Lil!"

"Crap!"

Plan A had failed and Lily's mind was already starting to come with a second strategy. Chris was definitely hiding something from them and she didn't approve it. The red head stared at Chris for a brief period before sentencing. "What is really going on?"

Chris opened his mouth to continue his denial mantra but was cut by a not so friendly Lily. "I swear to Merlin, if a satisfactory answer doesn't come out with more than ten words you'll be picking up pieces of this precious book of yours from here to Tajikistan , are we clear?"

Chris's answer to her threat was to orb the book away from her. But on the moment the blue orbs started to form Lil flipped her wand summoning it for a second time. The book fell back on the table and she mouthed "Epoximise."

Chris tried to orb his book again, but this time the whole table started to shine in blue orbs along with his property.

"Magical glue. Fun, huh?" Lily explained with a victory smile. "And since you're not orbing furniture away from the main room, spill it."

"Gosh, you are annoying!" Chris finally gave up and sat back on the bench.

"I know." She acknowledged without taking her eyes from him. "We have a full semester ahead of us and I don't have anything interesting to do, so…"

That meant Lily would come up with all sorts of plans, ideas, spells, potions and plots just to find out what she wanted. Chris also knew she would eventually catch him off guard and get into his mind because Harry Potter's attempt to teach occlumency to his children at young ages had backfired and he ended up creating a nosy and obstinate legiliment with no regard for privacy whatsoever.

"I'm trying to find out who are the demons that killed mom, alright?" Chris confessed.

There it was. Chris hadn't been dealing with his mother's death and moving on with his life as everybody else thought he was. Chris was secretly obsessing with his the situation and that made much more sense to the Gryffindor. It also couldn't end up well which meant wouldn't abandon him on that.

Instead of reprimanding him, she offered. "I'll help you."

"Not necessary. I got it covered!"

"Really?" The Potter raised an eyebrow before adding "And how do you intend to unglue the book from the table?"

Chris finally admitted defeat on the matter throwing his friend a resignation smile.

* * *

Lily entered the library and approached a group of boys from mixed houses. Chris, Hugo and Logan were each deeply concentrated in their own huge books.

"Guys, I need your help," she interrupted their study.

"What is it?" asked a concerned Hugo.

"Doyle boys freed a cat into the dark forest to prank a junior student. But Luke, the cat, is a pet and won't survive long in the wild, right? So I gave it a long thought…"

"Don't listen to her." Chris advised his friends without taking his eyes from reading.

"I don't remember dismissing your lousy plans." Lily answered Chris pointing to the Advanced Demonology volume.

"Guilty as charged," Chris admitted closing it with a sigh. "What's your idea?"

After explaining her plan to the boys, Lily anxiously expected them to cooperate.

The Ravenclaw Whitelighter was the first to answer. "So, your plan basically involves theft, breaking out of school at night, going into the forbidden forest… Oh, joy!"

"Why do you always have to make it sound so bad, Chris?"

"It's not particularly challenging with the material you handle me!"

"Couldn't you just tell a teacher or something?" Hugo intervened.

"You're no fun, Hugo!" Lily moaned.

"I'll do it," Logan, who quite never spoke, spoke.

"See! Here is the right man for the job!" The Potter proudly pointed to the Slytherin.

"No. We stick with Hugo's idea." Stated Chris to a Lily who was already preparing to leave with Logan on her heels. He tried again this time talking to her back. "I'm not gonna let you two go on with this nuisance."

She turned and said. "Chris, I asked for help, not permission."

They left before Chris could respond.

* * *

Later that night, Logan and Lily were arriving to the dark forest prepared take their plan into action. But right before they showed up in an open spot, she stopped him with her arm.

There was a student standing there and suddenly a shower of orbs formed right in front of him.

Lily whispered to Logan. _"_This forest is really crowded for a forbidden place, huh?_"_

The dark-haired Slytherin nodded in agreement and they turned their attention to the dialogue ahead.

"You want me to go in there?" The student asked pointing to a deep point into the forest.

"Scared, Malfoy?" A cold voice mocked.

Lily picked the mean tone Wyatt was using with Scorpious, but after a quick reflexive moment, decided the Malfoy deserved to be treated with harsh words: he was an idiot after all.

"Of course not, Halliwell. But, you're the Twice-Blessed; can't you deal with that on your own?"

"Probably," Wyatt tone was presumptuous. "But I can't be here all along and I need someone to keep an eye on them for me. Take this as a loyalty test."

"_Them? Who were them? Chris and Melinda? Doesn't matter. Why was Wyatt cutting a deal with a Malfoy" _Lily's mind started questioning, but she kept it to herself and continued paying attention to the talk.

"I forgave your family friends from attacking me hundreds of time. Succeed and I'll spare you, maybe even keep you."

The Halliwell handed Scorpius something and the Slytherin asked. "What is it?"

The correct answer would be: a crystal enchanted to notify Wyatt that an elder or a Charmed One tried to approach Hogwarts or contact his siblings so he could intercept it first. For now, his aunts and uncles were still trying to feel better and get their own kids back into normal lives and Wyatt had promised them he and Leo were perfectly capable of taking care Chris and Mel, but eventually, his aunts would check on them.

Leo blindly trusted his eldest son – who had just convinced his father that Chris blamed him for their mother's death and wasn't ready to meet him. It wasn't difficult at all, since Leo actually blamed himself and so did Wyatt. _"Stupid Elder's training."_ No, he wouldn't leave the safety of his siblings to the elders or his aunts. After all, in Wyatt's mind, they were the kids of the most powerful Charmed sister and he was the Twice- Blessed. That was more than enough to handle themselves.

Wyatt finally answered. "I won't risk anyone finding out before everything prepared. And I don't want the Elders to get involved."

On that point, Lily's mind strongly agreed with whatever Wyatt was up to. She just knew one Elder so far – Leo – and wasn't his biggest fan. Chris was convinced that Leo never did pay any attention to him and his friends had witness proof of that too many times to like him.

"What about summer brake? Won't they g–" Questioning the Twice-Blessed wasn't a smart decision, but Scorpius was really curious about how things could work out.

"That's for me to worry about," Wyatt interrupted "You just have to place this it in the right position to get the whole ground covered so the school is protected."

"And the right position would be in the middle of the forest, isn't it?"

"Sure." Wyatt was delighted with Malfoy's nervousness.

Scorpious picked his wand and went into the forest and Wyatt stood there waiting. Long moments later, the blonde Slytherin was back. Wyatt grabbed his arms and orbed away.

There was something really odd going on and Lily took a decision – she had to warn Chris about it. With that in mind, she handed all things she was holding to Logan and said. "Here is everything you need. You can find and rescue a cat by yourself, can't you?"

Logan nodded.

Good thing their only Slytherin friend was bizarrely brave and didn't use to discuss any points in any plans.

"I'll come to get you after. Good luck!" She said before aiming her wand to herself and flaming away.

* * *

She reformed in the middle of the Ravenclaw common room. Lily approached Chris dorm silently because she didn't want to wake the other students, but before she could get into the room, she heard a conversation in low voices.

"You can't come and go from Hogwarts as you please, you're not a student here."

"Can't I? Watch me!" Wyatt replied careless and changed the subject. "Why are you blocking me, Chris?"

"Sorry, Wy," The young Whitelighter truly apologized. "It's just, there's so much on you right now."

"I don't care. I worry about you." Wyatt was really concerned about how his little brother.

"And I have to handle it on my own." Chris justified.

"Ok, ok, have it your way," The eldest Halliwell consented and added in stubbornly "But I'll check on you whenever I feel like it."

Chris smiled faintly to his brother's resolution, but the smile died in his mouth when he started thinking of the rest of his family. After a small silence, he finally asked.

"They blame, don't they?"

No one blamed Chris for Piper's death and it would be absurd to think any of the Charmed One or the elders could hold a teenager responsible for the tragedy. Chris wasn't the one who attacked and he tried so hard to heal her.

"Yes, they do," Wyatt replied. "I'm so sorry."

"I finally made my whole family hate me." A bitter grin came out of the Ravenclaw's mouth.

Chris struggled with the tears and Wyatt's heart was in shreds. But the eldest had to stick with his plan in order to make them safe.

"No, Chris," Wyatt intervened. Apparently, he being there was not enough comfort his brother. He knew it wasn't from start – he added someone to try to smooth Chris's pain. "Mel doesn't hate you, I know. _She _isn't blocking me."

"Yeah, right. She's eleven, Wy… once she understands it."

"Chris," Wyatt grabbed his brother's shoulders and told him "I'll be always here for you, you know that?"

Chris broke eye contact and didn't answer – he couldn't handle his family distrust or trust at the moment without breaking down and he didn't intend to go back on that again. Instead, he decided to change the subject. "Good, 'cause I need your help anyway."

Chris orbed his new favorite book onto his bed. He shoved it open to a specific page and added, "Here, these are the responsible for the attack."

Wyatt went for the book and scanned the new information. After a few seconds, the eldest Halliwell commented. "But, but, but… these Lucasians… they are half human, Chris. How could they?"

"Keep reading. They think, prepare, and strategize for years before striking… they are absurdly intelligent beings – they hardly ever fail."

"Once I put my hands on them, they are going to strategize in hell!" Wyatt turned to his brother. "What was your plan?"

"First, find out who they were… second: didn't get this far yet." Chris didn't know exactly what they could do with the piece of information he got. Revenge wouldn't bring his mother back, wouldn't undo his failure… but he they couldn't let those murderers on the loose. The young Halliwell truly didn't know what they should do.

"Find out where these Luca-something can be found and tell me, alright?" Wyatt sounded decided.

Chris agreed "Ok. We'll work something out."

Wyatt nodded, although he had no intention of letting his younger brother to participate in what he had in mind. The Twice-Blessed's mind started had already started on planning a very painful end to whoever killed his mother and dared to go against the powerful Charmed Ones. If Chris wasn't blocking their connection, he would have perceived that on that moment his brother's mind was filled with images of torture and pain… and joy.

Lily knew she couldn't go accusing Wyatt of anything at that moment. He was using a Malfoy and that was a bad choice, so what? Whatever Wyatt was doing, it was to protect Chris and his older brother was apparently all her friend had left. The students wouldn't understand the implications of that night until it was too late.

She went to get Logan back and the memory faded.

* * *

Two days later the cat was back to the junior student and life was going on as it should. Chris felt guilty – his new personal feeling – for not helping Lily with whatever she had managed to do.

"So, did you get away again, huh?"

"A little luck."

"Little luck? It's like you bath in felix felicis."

But Lily's luck was about to run short. An angry Neville Longbottom approached to the group and spoke up. "One of the teachers reported a robbery. His classroom was invaded and all the protective spells on the door are still intact. And since nobody can apparatate in Hogwarts it appears that a person with a very rare travelling skill must have something to do with that."

The headmaster glared at the young couple. Silence.

"I expect the culprit to be at my office by the end of this afternoon or I'll punish everyone who possesses this kind of ability, including younger ones," Neville sentenced in a clear threat to Chris's sister who happened to be a first year there.

The read master turned on his heels and left. When he was far gone, Lily spoke.

"So much for my felix felicis, huh? Don't worry, I'll throw myself in. I'll just give Logan an upper hand just in case something else goes wrong."

A few moments later, Lily headed the principal's office in decided footsteps. She had just told Logan she would take the fall for the theft, which she actually did, and he should stay low until the forest incident came up. She was in such a hurry pace that she didn't see Chris walking the opposite direction until she bumped into his chest. She fell backwards.

"Lil," Chris helped her stand up.

"Hi, Chris." Although, she was going for a punishment, she sounded calm. "I'll meet you down there in a minute."

As she walked away, Chris called. "I've been there already."

Lily stopped, walked back to him and stared at him with eyes screaming _There? Where?_

"I told Prof. Neville I did it. It's ok now." The Whitelighter explained.

"Okay? That is far from okay, Christopher. You didn't want to go along my crazy idea – that was fine. But it's not okay you bailing me out. I'm not incapable."

"But, Lil…"

"Don't Lil-me"

* * *

Chris was already on detention – a light one actually. All he had to do was to clean and organize a forgotten library section. He grabbed a book from the shelf and started cleaning it, when a very familiar red haired girl walked in.

The Halliwell was truly surprised and asked "What are you doing here?"

"The same thing as you, I suppose," Lily replied "Detention."

"What did you do now?" He tried to sound soft. Chris really didn't want her to get on a tense nerve there.

"I hexed Doyle. He crossed my way after I left you and I was angry."

Chris just stared and Lily started feeling uncomfortable so she explained: "It was his fault afterwards: if he didn't prank the cat in the first place… Oh, don't give me that look, Chris. You know he deserved it."

"At least, Logan is bailed out?" He added taking another book.

"Yeah, and he would really like being baby-sat."

"I just…"

"Shoosh, Chris," Lily finally lost her temper.

Chris opened his mouth to say he was sorry. Sorry he let her go into trouble, sorry he didn't take part in the plan, sorry he confessed in her place. He was sorry for so many things lately… big things, small things. Although his face didn't show it, he was actually sorry he existed for all matters.

Before he could speak, Lily – unaware of his line of thinking sentenced: "Don't even bother to explain. I don't want to listen" With a sudden smile, Lily threw her eureka face. "That's it. I'm not talking to you anymore."

Oddly enough the fact that Lily was pointing a finger at Chris's face was good enough for him to have a sense that life was starting to get back on its track. His friend was the first person to drop the _Poor boy _act and treat him like a human being again. And no matter what had happened, he would have to face the world normally again.

After a few moments of silence between them, an owl landed on the window and hooted in a high tone towards Chris. He moved to the animal and took the piece of _paper_ tightened to its leg.

"What does Wyatt wants" Lily recognized it. The eldest Halliwell brother had gotten used to owls, but not parchment.

"I thought you weren't talking to me anymore?" Chris mocked while taking the mail from the bird leg and opening it.

"I'm not." Lily stubbornly added and contradicted herself. "What does it say!"

Finally reading the note Chris took his eyes from the letter and told Lily in a serious tone: "He found the Lucasians by himself. He says and I quote: "those bastards learnt how stupid and painful it is to cross a Halliwell way." Wyatt vanquished the entire clan!"

"So much for our field trip, then? At least it was good news, Chris."

Chris nodded thinking his brother had finally accomplished the mission he had in mind from day one, didn't he? Chris should be feeling satisfied by that… and yet, something in the way his brother wrote the note bothered him deeply.

_

* * *

Underworld, 2004. _

Chris had vanquished every moving thing he could remember having anything to do with Wyatt before he was born. He was careful enough to not strike any of the clans too, heavily so elders wouldn't notice an unbalance in good and evil. And that should have to be enough, because he didn't have the faintest idea about what else to do.

Yet, it didn't feel right. It was almost like he could feel things weren't corrected. He didn't know exactly how he would find out if he succeeded his mission, but he was deeply worried it would mean going back to the future and checking out personally.

But what if he had failed? Could he deal with that lousy world of his again?

He was not ready to call it a night and was wandering around the Underworld trying to check if there was anything else he could or should do before trying to get some rest somewhere. The memory of the fact that he wouldn't be able to go back to the manor or even to P3 stabbed him in the chest again and Chris felt tears on his eyes again. The young Whitelighter tried to convince himself for the zillionth time it was Piper's words, not Mom's.

That's when he saw himself in the portal of a cave. There was some sort of meeting going on and with a quick glimpse he recognized what appeared to be a man speaking to a small crowd. There, right in front of him, was the figure that would kill his mother in a few years time.

If Chris was feeling to weak or tired to fight, the rush of adrenaline he got was enough to shove it away. Not even the fact the he was way outnumbered would stop him at that point.

He took his backpack from his harmed shoulder and checked how many potions he still had. Chris mentally counted the recipients. Fifty demons or more… The elders were surely getting a pinch from this. "Screw the balance!" Chris murmured to himself and went in stating. "Vials, circle."

The spell, Chris had it written and memorized since he was fourteen…


End file.
